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Treating Sea Found Mammoth Teeth
- Thread starter PeterB
- Start date
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2000
- Messages
- 4,786
I don't think so.
They have been collected, sold, cut, coloured, and stabilized for years. I certainly have some and have used a lot in the past. I believe the salt has more often affected the mammoth ivory but even then I have used a lot of that too that's been good. Yes, I did end up throwing some out that was nothing but fine layers. The last piece I bought that came from the North Sea I have as a specimen mounted on a wire frame I made. It's mega colours with orange, black, browns, and blues. I could see it would fall apart if I tried to cut it for scales so I mounted it instead. My special small folder has some similar for scales and meteorite bolsters as well.
Frank
They have been collected, sold, cut, coloured, and stabilized for years. I certainly have some and have used a lot in the past. I believe the salt has more often affected the mammoth ivory but even then I have used a lot of that too that's been good. Yes, I did end up throwing some out that was nothing but fine layers. The last piece I bought that came from the North Sea I have as a specimen mounted on a wire frame I made. It's mega colours with orange, black, browns, and blues. I could see it would fall apart if I tried to cut it for scales so I mounted it instead. My special small folder has some similar for scales and meteorite bolsters as well.
Frank
Alpha Knife Supply
Always Innovating
- Joined
- Oct 14, 1998
- Messages
- 2,157
Mammoth teeth have been dredged from the North Sea for decades.
When we bought mammoth teeth we tested dredged teeth for stability. We spent considerable time trying to develop processes keep the salt from crystalizing and cracking the teeth, but we were unsuccessful. We also heard from many knifemakers who had dredged teeth scales crack after selling the knives.
In the end, we decided the risk was unacceptable and never sold any scales made from dredged teeth. The cost savings of buying dredged teeth was about 1/3 to 1/2 compared to teeth dug from permafrost. Why take the risk?
If your definition of "successfully treated" means stabilized, that is another discussion.
Chuck
When we bought mammoth teeth we tested dredged teeth for stability. We spent considerable time trying to develop processes keep the salt from crystalizing and cracking the teeth, but we were unsuccessful. We also heard from many knifemakers who had dredged teeth scales crack after selling the knives.
In the end, we decided the risk was unacceptable and never sold any scales made from dredged teeth. The cost savings of buying dredged teeth was about 1/3 to 1/2 compared to teeth dug from permafrost. Why take the risk?
If your definition of "successfully treated" means stabilized, that is another discussion.
Chuck