mammoth tooth liner question

quint

quint

Joined
Nov 29, 2011
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So I have a set of mammoth tooth scales that I picked up and was recommended to use some liners for them. They are pretty nice and what not but still have the general small checks and small voids.

So I was thinking of using the same process I do for making my homemade mycarta which is using a wood block that fits in a vacuum bag. Layer the linen like normal using west systems epoxy. Do enough layers to give me a thin liner and then place the tooth scales on top layered with epoxy. What I generally do is draw a vacuum on the whole thing which draws the epoxy into everything. Once it has had a vacuum for a little bit I take the whole thing still under vacuum and place it between a couple of wood pieces and clamp it. Figure wont use too much pressure since its under vacuum and the teeth being somewhat brittle.

Then once its sat overnight take out the scales, sand the back flat and should have a nice layer of linen mycarta that is fused very well to the teeth plus any checks or voids in the teeth themselves should be filled in nicely. Should help with blowout in the back while drilling as well I assume.

Has anyone done this and if so did it work pretty good. For reference I use the small bags that are about 1 foot by 1 foot with a hand held food sealer that I bought at freddies. Works good for doing normal scales.
 
I believe this will be a good approach to start. I did get the bags and pump to try this but just never tried it. I have been filling the holes with ca glue, levelling the back side, and using the ca glue to attatch liners about .015 thick. I think you will find the repoxy too soft for the out side of the scales. You should get some sillicon carbide belts. Tru Grit has them. I use 60, 120, 400, 600. The more regular ceramic belts can be very difficult to use and may tear the scales as you go. As well they may not cut worth a darn although on what you seem to have is some very soft tooth scales. and the tearing is more likely. It is very important that as soon as you see "bad" spots you stop, and fill with ca. This may take several days to achieve due to the dring time. Using the instant dry spray will just not do the job. I did find thast epoxy is to soft to fill the cracks and holes with and does show on finishing where as the ca does not.
I have found that drilling the holes for the scales is a huge problem. An approach I have just recently learned of, is to attatch the scales to the liners with a few small drops of ca glue, shape the scales to the liners, and now drill the holes from the scales down !!! A start hole for the screw HEAD clearance is drilled first and then a hole for the screw THREADS is drilled through the scales and then through the liners. The scales are then removed using a touch of heat and perhaps a light tap or so. I am using some of this approach but not all. I am doing some of the more regular meathod of drilling the holes through the liners and through the scales. You may find this meathod will work well for you if the scales are fairly soft and without hard layers which are most common in tooth scales.What happens is the hard spots cause the bit to move out of alignment and you end up with a hole that is not perpendicular. I suggest using carbide or new drill bits, but don't believe these will neccesarily be the answer. As you have read, I don't have all the right anwers for working this material. I'm hoping that I will soon find a successfull way to drill these holes in this material. It can be a very pretty natural material but with serious working problems.
Further on an easier side I usually finish the mammoth tooth down to 1200 by hand. With the soft - hard nature of this material , buffing will cause it to have a very irregular surface. Frank
 
Quint.
I do believe it is the challenge that keeps me looking for the true answer. I will be most pleased to share it once I have something I know will give the proper results. If there is something else, please ask. We may see someone come in with the peply that is the answer. To see some of my mamoth tooth folders, you can go to customknifegallery.com Frank
 
In Charles Turnage's video , he recommends putting liner on top & bottom , drill holes & then grind the top liner off after drilling holes . The top liner decreases the bit from wandering due to hard streaks. I have used this method on several folders lately & it freally makes a difference .

Joe Sangster
 
Charles is a distant very good friend of mine that I have nothing but respect for, however this meathod while working one time is not an answer to the problem of getting good holes for screws in mammoth tooth material. It does work SOME. but not like you can count on it. As well you can still end up with ragged holes . But sure, try it on a corner or scrap first. The scales you have may work well doing this. I wish you well and please, very please, post a better way in total if you find one. With respect for tying to help us all. Frank
 
Will do Frank, probably gonna be a few months before I get a chance to use them though.
 
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