using coral

S

shaker

Joined
Apr 12, 2005
Messages
274
recently i have seen pictures of a knife with coral handles. since i make scuba diving knives and the one i saw looked very nice i want to try some coral.
have any of you used coral , what kind of machining can it stand up to?
can it be drilled? i know it can be sanded from the pictures ,,but im more interested in . the coral is very pricey but it will likely just be for my personal dive knife . so even the preformance of the coral would not matter to much to me . how about fake coral? know of any?
any advice or hints would be very much welcomed
thanks shaker,,,aka Terry
 
You can grind and drill coral fairly easily,depending on the genus.Most coral for handles is reconstituted coral,a mix of resins and crushed coral.It comes in slabs from suppliers like K&G,and such.Use diamond drills or carbide,keep from getting hot,CZ belts work great.but most fresh belts cut it.Sand to as fine as you can get (2000-8000)and polish with any white rouge,or tin oxide.Basically it is like doing turquoise or softer stone.
Stacy
 
thanks for the input,, its natural coral..and i think ill order some this week
shaker
 
most red,black and gold coral availible today is too expensive and in small sizes to use for a knife handle,unless it's a small penknife. unless you are looking at whole branches i doubt it's natural coral.
 
Most coral is not reconstituted. There are plenty of types of coral that are large enough for full size knives and folders. Mother of pearl company sells apple coral, tiger coral,and blue coral. They range in price from $30-$75 a pair depending on size.
Here is a link to their website-http://www.knifehandles.com/
 
you might want to ask them exactly what apple coral is. most references state that it is stabilized limestone from the phillapines.
 
I don't want to start a big thing here,but Shakudo is correct and so is Howie.Most of the white corals used in slab form are stabilized (and sometimes reconstituted) coral limestones from the pacific.They name it with marketing names like Apple,Peach, Angel,Tiger,Lace,etc.based on the color and if it has stripes.It is sold in the islands for ridiculous prices to the tourists,who are told it is rare.Branch corals are the black and red corals,and are not available in knife scale sizes ,generally. TKS and K&G both carry tiger coral.
Stacy
 
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