Stabilizing mammoth bone...need suggestions!

scottickes

scottickes

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Oct 27, 2005
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I have some mammoth bone with small hairline cracks. They won't hold up without being stabilized. I think that it would crack through with use as a knife handle and break off eventually, even though they seem solid enough right now.

I'm thinking of using cyanoacrylic glue and soaking them in a ziplock baggie. My other option is minwax wood hardener. My questions are:
Which do you think will be stronger?
Should I heat the mammoth bone in the microwave for a short period of time, say 30 seconds, before putting it in minwax wood hardener?
Can it be heated in the microwave before going into cyanoacrylic glue?

Do you have any other suggestions? I don't want to send it out for formal stabilization, so that isn't an option on this one.
 
Soak them with superglue and sand off the excess. It will fill any and all cracks and protect them from moisture. I like to glue a thin fibre backing on them also.
 
Bruce Bump said:
Soak them with superglue and sand off the excess. It will fill any and all cracks and protect them from moisture. I like to glue a thin fibre backing on them also.
Click to expand...

It's a hidden stick tang Bruce. It's a really fat piece of bone that I picked up when I was in Fairbanks about 3 years ago.
 
Buy several packs of the cheap super glue at the dollar store. Put the ivory on a piece of waxed paper. Run the glue into all the cracks. Repeat until the whole piece is completely filled and has no cracks left unfilled.Let sit for at least two days.(spraying with activator after everything is done is OK, but don't use until all filling is completed) Grind and sand (the superglue smell will make your eyes water) as you wish from here. I personally love to fill the cracked stuff. If often looks much better than the plain and smooth pieces.
Stacy
 
As Stacy said, but be wary of using activator on cheap, or very thin ca glue, as it will sometimes bubble & turn whitish (ask me how I know)

Best just to leave it for a couple of days.
 
Yes, the activator has an exothermic reaction with wet glue. The thin cheap stuff will smoke and bubble.Avoid overheating ivory. It can burn your hand if you are not careful. Having your fingers glued to a hot piece of ivory is not fun. I avoid spraying it on until the glue has had time to already set. What the activator does for ivory, is help cure the glue locked in the cracks that is sealed from the air and not cured yet. Regardless of activator or not, you must let it sit for 48 hours or more to cure deep into the cracks.

I forgot to add - A PROPER RESPIRATOR AND EYE PROTECTION IS A MUST.
Stacy
 
I switched to oderless super glue from Alpha knife makers supply. No more burnig eyes. Good stuff!
 
Scott,

Do you know Dan Westlind? He lives down the road from you near Cathlamet.
If that mammoth is cracked I would not recommend using it for a stick tang knife. I do not know of any treating process that will fill internal cracks.
Dan now has the treating process down. He has some fossil whale one that looks like mammoth.
Chuck
 
Buy a Paleo Bond Kit as it has various thicknesses of bonding agent and acivators and it was developed for the purpose of putting skelitons together for museums,you can get it fdrom Paleo Bond or K&g sells for about $70 fot the hole kit
 
Well, I've gone and done it. I put the mammoth bone in the microwave for 30 seconds to warm it up. I put it in a ziplock baggie and squirted in 8 bottles of .07 ounce super glue and zipped it up tight. It was all bubbling and stuff. After 36 hours almost all of the super glue had soaked in. I've got it out of the baggie and drying on wax paper in my heated shop now. It's dry to the touch, and looks like it has filled in all of the hairline cracks really nicely. I'm going to let it completely dry for 48 hours before working with it.

Thanks to everyone for all of your advice. I couldn't have done this without you! You guys ROCK!
 
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