MOP scales help

flava

flava

Joined
Mar 3, 2000
Messages
2,785
Need your advice, guys. I will get a blade from "Reproduction Blades" soon (a little necker) and I want to put some gold-lip MOP scales on it. I haven't worked this material before, and I don't want to ruin some beautiful gold-lip so I need to find out how to shape. How difficult is to cut, drill and finish MOP? I don't use powertools besides the handdrill, but I have a metal-saw, files and sandpaper. It worked out well on Micarta, but I'm not sure how to start with MOP. Please tell me about your experience with MOP.
 
The first one I did was with jewlers saw and sandpaper, took forever.
I found out that this stuff is not as brittle as it's reputation says it is. Now I grind with a belt grinder and cut with a scroll saw. The only part that I take care with is drilling, I always use brand new drill bits to avoid chipping.
 
Thank you Mr. Thickbourne. One more question, what speed should I use for drilling to minimize the chances of chipping?
 
A light drop of cutting fluid will help alot when drilling. Also make sure you have something backing up the pearl when you drill, like a piece of scrap micarta. Meaning, when you break through you are less likely to chip out a creater on the other side. Really bad when your going to use pins.



Patrick R Nihiser
Knifemaker
 
Do not breaght the dust created by the Pearl or allow it to get into your lungs. The mucus in the lungs is a catalysis for the Pearl. When the Pearl enters the lungs it will harden up and cause suffocation.

I have been gluing brass and stainless to the Pearl to back it up. This has eliminated the chipping from drilling and cutting. There are some pics of cutting out the Pearl on my photo point page under Folding Knife 7.
Good luck

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