My $20 bone folder was a total waste, but not for the obvious reason

Picked up a cheap bone folder at a craft store in Portland and it snapped clean in half on my second project. Turns out the fake bone ones are just compressed plastic, so I bit the bullet on a real cow bone one for $14 more and the difference is night and day. Anyone else get burned by the cheap knockoff tools before giving in?

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ivan_schmidt1mo ago

Wait, did you actually confirm the snapped one was compressed plastic? The reason I ask is that real bone folders can snap too if they dry out or get dropped just wrong, and a lot of the "fake bone" ones are actually just cow bone that's been shaped and polished anyway, so the material might not be what failed on you. What usually separates the cheap ones is how thick they are and how the edges are finished, not the material itself. A thin $20 folder with a bad edge will crack on a hard crease no matter what it's made of, while a thicker one holds up. So the price jump you paid might have bought you a beefier tool more than a "real" one. Not saying you're wrong to be happy with it, just that the plastic story gets passed around a lot and isn't always true.

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