A wooly mammoth went to the dentist

J

Jason Fry

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Jun 5, 2008
Messages
3,160
Until I started making knives, I never thought much about mammoths, especially not what happened to their tusks or teeth after they all died out. Now days, I'm pretty interested, as mammoth ivory and tooth are among the higher-end knife handle materials. It is somewhat amazing to me that these animals died out a zillion years ago, but I can buy parts of them on the internet.

Here's a knife I just put together for a customer, my first attempt with mammoth tooth. Like most teeth, it has hard and soft parts and is very brittle. Tough to drill a straight hole as the density varies so much within the piece, and it wants to chip out real bad also. Even so, this one turned out pretty good. Steel is 3/32" 154CM. This is a small, thin knife, about 7 1/2" OAL.

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I put this in the "show and tell" forum, but constructive comments on how to improve the next knife like this are welcome.
 
Looks beautiful but I'm guessing the scales would not survive an accidental fall, much like ceramics or glass.
 
I agree, not likely to be too durable, IMO. Customer asked for it that way, though, and was made aware of the risks but wanted to go ahead.

"It's fragile putting together, and not too durable once it's on. It won't take kindly to being dropped on hard surfaces, but should be ok for regular small game use."
 
That's a really cool blade Jason. I like the way you have the tooth running. Normally the lines are perpendicular to the handle. I like how it parallels the handle.

A really nice practical looking small, thin blade too. This is one of my favorite knives you've made so far.
 
I worked for a fairing company and we had jigs for drilling holes in Lexan. I had to basically grind the leading edge of the bits to prevent cracking or chipping out. I believe that is what you will need to do with your bits for mammoth tooth. This also prevents the bit from grabbing the material.
 
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