Description
In 2014 we rolled out something special for GenCon, something we’d been asked to make since the very first day Artisan Dice existed. It’s the 2nd most commonly asked for item on our customers’ wish lists. Bone Dice.
For those that aren’t aware, bone makes for horrible dice, it’s porous, oddly shaped, prone to chipping, and the larger pieces we need to make dice from are hollow and spongy in the middle thanks to that wonderful thing called marrow. So, for the longest time our standard answer was, “Nope sorry, we don’t make bone dice.”
As it would turn out all those issues are solved once you stabilize the bone and cast it in a urethane resin block. The colored holes you see are the resin filling in the teeth holes in the gator jawbone. The white parts are the actual gator jawbone. Yup, these dice aren’t just crated from any old bone, they’re made from an actual alligator jaw bone fresh from the swamps of Lousiana. Actually, they come from an alligator farm in Louisiana where we source gator jawbones from the largest of farm raised gators as it takes an 8ft gator to have a large enough jawbone to craft our dice from. Much like carnivorous cows, these gators are raised for meat and leather. If you haven’t tried it, fried alligator tail is really delicious.
L. Denoyer –
I want to start this review off by saying that Artisan Dice accommodated my request of making Fate/Fudge gator jawbone dice, which was really awesome. The dice have a nice feel to them and have a satisfying sound. There are some parts that are not quite so satisfied with or was surprised about when I got the dice, though. First is that two of the dice have a chipped corners and all four of the set have what appear to be abrasion marks on some of their edges and corners. I don’t think they are supposed to have the “abrasions” because it isn’t consistent across all the corners and edges. I was really excited about these dice, and it is disappointing that they came damaged like this.
The other thing is not exactly a negative, but it did come as a surprise. On my computer screen the resin parts of the dice in the picture of the sample set look like a really nice shade of indigo. Indigo is one of my favorite colors. The actual dice, however, are a shade of purple. It still is a nice color, it just wasn’t at all what I was expecting. Maybe my computer just doesn’t display the preview image correctly from the website?
I got the dice last week and have been debating for a few days about how to write the review. All in all, a good set of dice but with a little frustration. All the other dice I have received from the seller have been flawless, so it was disappointing that the set I was looking forward to the most has flaws.
Charlie Brumfield –
that for the review! sound like your dice got past QC. please email us at contact@artisandice.com so that we may repair / replace them for you.
L. Denoyer –
Update to my previous review: the repaired dice came and they are beautiful! It took a while for them to be made, but that was due to issues with supply of the gator bone. Thank you, Artisan Dice team!