Bone char
A deep black pigment and filter made by charring animal bones
No single value: Bone char is a material, and its colour varies. The background shows its family, black.
Bone char is a black, granular substance made by heating animal bones in low oxygen. It is mainly used for filtering water and sugar, and as a pigment in art. The colour is a deep black, once made from ivory but now produced from cattle and pig bones. It has a long history in both industry and painting.
- Made by charring animal bones at high temperatures
- Used as a black pigment in art since historic times
- Removes fluoride and metals from water
- Was once made from ivory, now made from cattle and pig bones
- Still used in sugar refining and technical coatings
What colour is Bone char?
Bone char is a black, porous material made by heating animal bones in a low-oxygen environment. It is granular and deep in colour, giving a strong, rich black when used as a pigment. Its main components are tricalcium phosphate, calcium carbonate, and carbon. Bone char stands out from other blacks for its origin and its use in both industry and art.
Where does Bone char come from?
The name 'bone char' comes from its method of production: charring animal bones. Historically, ivory was also used to make a similar pigment called ivory black, but this practice has stopped due to cost and animal protection. The Latin term 'carbo animalis' refers to the same material. Bone char has been used since historic times for both filtering and colouring.
How is Bone char made?
To make bone char, animal bones (mainly from cattle and pigs) are heated in a sealed vessel at high temperatures, with little oxygen. This process removes most organic material, leaving a mix of carbon and minerals. The result is a black, granular substance. If bones are heated with more oxygen, bone ash is produced instead, which is chemically different.
Where Bone char is used
Bone char is used as a pigment in artists' paints, inks, and for blackening leather and shoes. It has been used by painters from Rembrandt to Picasso. In industry, it is used to filter water, especially to remove fluoride and metals, and to refine sugar by removing colour and impurities. It is also used in some technical coatings, such as on spacecraft heatshields.
Black around the world
What the black family means from country to country.
The black eagle gives the country its own name for itself: Shqiperia is commonly read as the land of the eagles.
Politics and protestPrideSource: AlbaniaBlack and yellow were the colours of the Habsburg monarchy. They come from the black double-headed eagle on a gold ground used by the Holy Roman Emperors.
Royalty and powerSource: Flag of the Habsburg monarchyThe black upper half of the Aboriginal flag stands for the Aboriginal people of Australia.
Politics and protestPrideSource: Australian Aboriginal flagOn 21 February, Language Martyrs' Day, people wear black badges and black and white clothes and walk barefoot to the Shaheed Minar to honour those killed in 1952.
Mourning and deathPolitics and protestGriefSource: Bengali language movementThe black, yellow and red of the flag come from the arms of the Duchy of Brabant: a gold lion with red claws and tongue on black. They were raised in the 1830 revolution.
Politics and protestPrideSource: Flag of BelgiumTwo diagonal stripes cross the yellow of the flag, one white and one black. They stand for the Sultan's two chief ministers.
Politics and protestSource: Flag of BruneiShades and relatives of Bone char
Bone black and ivory black are closely related; ivory black was once made from charred ivory, but now the names are used for the same pigment made from bones. Bone char can be confused with other black pigments like carbon black or activated carbon, but its mineral content and origin set it apart.
Questions people ask about Bone char
What colour is bone char?
Bone char is a deep black, granular material used as a pigment and for filtration.
How is bone char made?
It is made by heating animal bones in a sealed vessel at high temperatures with little oxygen, leaving mostly carbon and minerals.
What is the origin of the name 'bone char'?
The name comes from its production method: charring animal bones to create a black substance.
What is bone char used for?
It is used as a pigment in art, for filtering water and sugar, and in some technical coatings.
Is bone char the same as ivory black?
Today, ivory black refers to bone char made from animal bones; real ivory is no longer used.
Good reading and sources
The facts on this page come from the Wikipedia article "Bone char", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, and from its Wikidata record (CC0). Rang rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.
It may contain mistakes. The swatch is an approximation: named colours are not fixed standards, and every screen shows them a little differently. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-03.
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