Mammoth tooth?

M

moon59

Joined
May 2, 2005
Messages
208
I picked up a nice piece of tooth at a yard sale and was wondering what to use to cut it into slabs. I'd like some advice before I end up with a pile of dust and small chunks. Thanks, Moon.
 
Cut it with a diamond wet saw.

Be prepared for it breaking apart. Mammoth tooth looks good, but is too much of a PITA for most to use. I use tooth slabs to display knives on, not as handle material.
 
My first and only experience with mammoth tooth was an unimaginable disaster, and an expensive mistake. I had read everything I could about working with mammoth tooth before hand, and mine was already cut into a pair of slabs, all I needed to do was trim it down. I had glued it to some thin oak planking, went slow, with my grinder running as slow as the VFD would let it go, with plenty of water and cooling, and still ended up busting it into a billion pieces. Most teeth that are cut are cut parallel to the biting surface, to get the contrasting lines from the layers in the teeth, but this is also the weakest way you can possibly have mammoth tooth. It might help to see a photo of what you have, but what Stacy has said has become my modus operandi. I leave it to the people making knives that will never actually be 'used' other than for display or art.
 
I have been using it reularly. I still am looking for a bunch of answers like how to drill steped holes for screws without one or the other steps needed to do this not aligning properly because of very hard layers can be mixed in with soft ones.
Well here is what I do know that helps me. I cautiosly flatten one same side of each scale aqnd then use c. a. glue to attatch some G10 usually .014 thick. I do rough up the surface with 120 grit sandpaper. Sometimes the tooth can then be cut with a fine tooth metal cutting band saw say 18 teeth per inch or more preferred. Often I will just conture wide grind the shape needed attatch it to the scales (I make folders) with the screws and then continue. I now only use silicon carbide belts (Klingspor) to do all the grinding on mammoth tooth. If you are just getting started, I recommend getting one of a 60, 120, 400 grit belts from Tru Grit. They work well on this material even when it is super hard. The blaze belts asnd 3M ones are quickly destroyed.To finish it I hand sand to at least 1000. To see some of my mammoth tooth folders, go to customknifegallery.com and scroll down on the left hand side. Sorry I cann't give you too much on drilling the holes, except to say that carbide drill bits so far give me the best results. If you find a good way to go with this material, please post it . Frank
 
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