Cutting Mastodon Ivory

[george tichbourne]

I purchased a fine piece of Siberian Mastodon ivory today with a good bit of bluish veining in it and a nice slice of Gibeon iron meteorite at a gem and mineral show.

My question is what blade configuration ie TPI is recommended for hand cutting the bark off the inner ivory. There is a nicely placed delamination that I want to follow as closely as possible because I suspect that there is some nice staining along the delamination line and do not want to lose any of it if I possibly can.


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george
www.tichbourneknives.com
sales@tichbourneknives.com

 

[Jake Evans]

Hi George, I don't know the tooth count, but I use a back saw with very fine teeth for stuff like that. You have good control and the kerf is narrow so there is little waste.

Jake

 

[Harry Jensen]

George-
Get hold of Gene Osborne or Darrel Ralph...they just cut up a bunch.
Harry

 

[tbark]

I had some luck awhile back coating it with superglue and takeing a thin screwdriver from the end and incerting the screwdriver and useing a wood mallot lightly tapping the SD down in between the bark and the inner core it come out great for me

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TbarK Custom Knives
http://vip.hpnc.com/~tbark Therefore I erge you brother's in view of God's Mercy to offer your body's as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship Romans 12-1

 

[george tichbourne]

tbark your idea is appealing but the risk of damage to the bark is one which I just don't want to take. I think I will go with a jewelers saw and an 18TPI blade.

I am planning to take some mastodon handled knives and some meteorite bolstered, carbon fibre handled drop points to the Austin show in August.


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george
www.tichbourneknives.com
sales@tichbourneknives.com

 

[RJ Martin]

George: Sand the inner surface flat. Superglue it to a squared off piece of wood, set up a rip fence and go! 18TPI is fine, 24 perhaps better. Ivory isn't hard to cut-fixturing it is the trick.

Cut it thicker than you want, and sand the rest off w/50 grit. Avoid heat build up, and, don't leave them too thick or you'll grind off all that pretty blue....

RJ