polishing mammoth ivory

[darkman]

polishing no prob.. but do you guys who use it like to
epoxy it to the steel as well as pin..or do you find pins
are adequate?

 

[richard rosvall]

I'd recommend gluing the ivory to a contrasting liner material first, then gluing and pinning the slabs on the knife. Rough up the surfaces that will be glued. Good luck!

 

[george tichbourne]

Peening the pins is very touchy, could cause cracking. I prefer to epoxy and pin with plain pins.

 

[Bruce Bump]

Like Richard and George, I use plain pins (not too close to the edges) and glue the ivory to spacer material.

 

[Peter Atwood]

When you guys talk about spacer material are you talking something flexible like neoprene? It seems like that would make sense so that the differing expansion and contraction rates of the ivory and metal would not cause cracking as the temperature fluctuates.

I was involved with a similar project years ago where we installed handforged wrought iron hinges directly onto the plate glass doors of a church. Neoprene turned out to be the hot ticket in that case.

 

[Bruce Bump]

When I talk of spacer material, Im talking about the stiff colored fiber material that I buy from the knife supply catalogs. You may have something with the neopreme idea. Ivory tends to squirm around. Thats why its usually gets so many pins to hold it down. I like to attach ivory slabs to a tapered tang. The angle of the pins seem to aid in holding them down.

 

[darkman]

x

 

[peter nap]

Neopreme may be a little to squishy Bruce. I have coated things (like fiber spacers) with black tool dip with good results. Seems to have just the right give and evens itself out as it dries.