Any idea how to cut an ostrich egg in half?

[Nick]

A strange request perhaps. SWMBO has tasked me to convert a clean, blown, natural ostrich egg into a container for a specific purpose. The egg is approx. 6.5 x 5.0 inches (165 x 127mm) and 2-3 mm thick. Makes the eyes water just thinking about it! Can be cut either longways or sideways. As this is a one-off and we only have 1 egg, I would like to get it right first time. Also only a week to produce the finished article, to include hinge, fastener, turned base etc. Any experience or thoughts on such stupidity please?

I have a decent range of hand & power tools but have never worked on anything this fragile.

Many thanks

Nick.

[EricP]

Yes, first make up a sand bed for the egg. Make a hole in the sand to support the egg and then score around the line to be cut with a Stanley knife. This is S l o w a n d g e n t l e stuff. Then use a fine toothed tenon saw. The idea is lots of scratching rather than sawing.

HTH

[lovemandude]

dissolve the egg in vinegar, the shell will go soft, cut in half(it won't break), then put in a solution of calium carbonate to get the shell back hard.

[Andy Dingley]

First thing is to get some Vicks and a dustmask (think Altern8) You don't want to smell this stuff as you work on it, it's _horrible_.

Then get your Dremel and a cutting disk, big as possible. Make a Dremel stand - boxed up MDF and tie-wraps to hold it is fine, just make sure the Dremel disk is horizontal and you can change disks as needed.

Now make an egg cradle, from MDF, corugated cardboard, foamboard, or whatever you have.

Make the height of both cradles so that the egg meets the Dremel disk where needed. Use masking tape to stop the egg moving in the cradle.

Now place both stands onto a flat workbench, power up and slowly rotate the egg against the disk. It cuts slowly but easily. Work round gradually, so that you cut almost all the way through around the whole egg, before you start breaking through in any spot.

If you happen to have a glass cutting ring saw (diamond grit on metal) then I believe you can just slam them straight through an ostrich egg. Haven't tried that though (yet).

[Chris Hodges]

And run the dremel on slowest speed?

[BigWallop]

I normally just boil them for an hour or so, then tap the top off with a big spoon. Loverly with toasted soldiers of wholemeal bread and a little salt. MMmmmmmmmm. :-)

[Andy Dingley]

No, run it on the fastest speed compatible with the rating of your abrasive disks.

[Timfy]

This is better...

[BigWallop]

Phoarrrrrr!!!! My mouth waters as we speak. The breeds awready buttert mate. :-) LOL

[The Natural Philosopher]

You need something like a dremel with a cut-off wheel

Basically a very small fine angle grinder..

[The Natural Philosopher]

I'd say high speed and very little pressure is better.

[Chris]

I breed emus, you can cut an emu egg in two with a water cooled tile cutter power saw. You can probably do it with a fine toothed hack saw or even an abrafile. I am sure an ostrich egg will cut in a similar fashion.

[Gerard Doyle]

================== Have you considered telling SWMBO that she will NOT be obeyed? There is a last straw for everybody no matter how down-trodden.

Cic.

[s--p--o--n--i--x]

Whatevery you do I'd be inclined to try it out on a hens egg first. If it doesn't work on a hens egg it won't work on an ostrich egg..

sponix

[Mary Fisher]

I agree. I'm working up to telling Spouse that his word isn't necessarily the last ...

Mary

[Chris Bacon]

Mark the cut with a pencil. Hold the egg in a bed of cloth or white sand Cut around with a fine-toothed saw with a good "set" on it. Do not try to push the saw through, just let it rub away. Go right around, turning the egg as you go, without cutting right through the shell, until you find the saw going through, then carefully finish off. Don't force the blade, don't let is waggle about. I wouldn't use any power tool, and use something with a decent length of blade so that it cuts to a good line.

[Andy Dingley]

Hens eggs are very hard to cut (unless you use one from something like Mary's hens). They're just too thin-shelled and fragile. With Dremel and cutting disk, I've done one ostrich and a bunch of goose eggs and had no trouble, but never a successful hen. This was a goose

[Mary Fisher]

Huh?

I've never tried cutting them. Hmm, perhaps I'll try.

I'm sure that any hen's eggshell is much thinner than an ostrich's. I've noticed that small wild bird's eggs are thinner shelled than those from out banties and certainly our daughter'sduck eggshells are much tougher.

The turkey eggs we used to get were incredibly difficult to break but I think that was because of the very tough membrane inside.

Mary

[Andy Dingley]

I presume you feed your hens, rather than just hooking them up to a drip feed of pureed school dinners and sheeps' heads, or whatever it is agribusiness is doing this week.

[Chris Hodges]

OK, just curious, as you suggested a glass-cutting diamond saw (IIRC) which is normally a slow diamond saw (at least compared to one for tiles).