mother of pearl

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bartblade

Joined
Nov 4, 2002
Messages
344
i am wondering. mother of pearl comes form the shell? and is from the ocean clams? what about from a river bed is that the same and how is it cut to get the flatest material
 
Hi Bartblade, Mother of pearl comes from the abalone and the shell although thick on large specimens, yeilds only small shavings which are put under glass so to speak, in the form of a doublet or triplet with polymers which stabilizes the fragile pearl.
I don't think that freshwater shells from the riverbed will show the same colors, but good luck with your experimenting. I am not sure how the shells are cut these days.
 
Not sure where you heard that ,Original, but its wrong (perhaps you are thinking of Mabe' pearls?).I've been cutting and working MOP and Abalone for over 30 years.

Mother of pearl is the term for all nacre bearing layers of the inner surface of mollusk shells. Most MOP used for jewelery and knife purposes comes from a variety of shells - abalone, pearl oyster, pink(and other) mussels, some conchs and their cousins, and paua shell. Clams, and most common mussels don't deposit the kind that works for decorative purposes.The color and size is determined by the source. It is not covered with glass or "stabilized". Due to the small area that is usable for a flat piece of MOP, even a large shell yields only a small piece.The opalescence displayed by MOP (and pearls) is caused by the way the nacre is layered when the mollusk deposits it on the shell, and by the number of years it has been deposited. Abalone would produce the largest pieces (and very colorful), but the marine borers ruin the shells with hundreds of tiny holes.Large south sea pearl oyster is used for most commercial MOP.4-4.5" X 1.25-1.5" is about the max size available. At the Blade show a few years back they auctioned off the worlds largest set of black lip MOP scales. It was nearly 5X2". They went for several thousand dollars.
Stacy
 
bladsmth said:
Due to the small area that is usable for a flat piece of MOP, even a large shell yields only a small piece.
Click to expand...

I have long wondered why somebody doesn't offer curved mother of pearl pieces as a regular item. I've thought about using pearl overlays on a framed handle, but the design has some concave curves to it. It seems counterintuitive to take a piece of shell with the proper curvature naturally built in, grind it flat, and then when you want to grind it curved again it's too thin. I'd think this would also open up more options since a curved piece could be bigger (I assume?) than a flat piece from the same shell.

I've never looked into this seriously since that project is way in the future for me, but do pearl suppliers work on custom cuts like this?
 
well just took and cut a sample piece it cut well with the bandsaw but trying to sand it flat was another story it just kept flaking off until it was too thin to do anything with. i wonder if this is anything like the real thing if it is i dont see how its made into anthing workable other than hand sanding and even still how would it stay together.

oh and the stench while cutting it made me rember to put my mask on it smells like cutting and shaping deer horn. almost an exact stench but fades quicker
 
Howdy There...!
If you really want to know about mother of pearl, talk to Joe Culpepper. His is a very good resource of information about pearl, since he is most likely the largest importer of pearl in this country. Also be sure to wear a good mask when you do any grind or drilling on the pearl the dust is not good for ya. Keep it cool when you work it. Check with joe...!

Later "Possum"
 
Maybe Stacy will tell you how he cuts his MOP, I use an diamond saw blade and water coolant. Been sitting on a huge bag of abalone hi-grade since the 70's.

I am holding in my hand an I-XL folder with doublet white pearl scales. ???? Stacy??
 
I use a band saw most of the time. I have used my diamond tub saw, it does help with the elimination of the dust. With a vac at the blade port on the band saw, and the saw running at slow speed, a band saw works fine. I suppose there are doublets of MOP out there (to make thicker pieces?), but all the material I have ever worked with is solid. The shell is cut so there is a show side and a back side. The back side can look very plain, and the line of demarcation between the two may look like a lamination, but it is a solid piece. If a doublet was made in MOP, it would be a good quality MOP top on a common shell back, but surely nothing that is real MOP would have a glass or quartz cap on it.Some of the composite MOP scales look like they have an acylic top?
I'll try to look in the shop when I get a chance, and pull out a box of red abalone shells I used to cut slabs from, for some photos.
As for grinding it, sand with slow belt speed, avoiding heat buildup. A wet sander will be a real advantage if you have one. Sand to 400+ and then buff with white rouge,again avoiding heat build-up.Wear proper filtration gear, vacuum up all dust, blow the dust off your clothes outside before going in. The dust form many types of MOP is not good for you at all,especially abalone.
Stacy
 
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