I am making a knife for my wife's b'day, (I suggested a wolly mammoth engraving, she wanted roses, to show how sweet she is she agreed to the wooly mammoth design) which led me to change my unfinished 45. colt grips to her knife grips.Anyway to make a long story longer It started to feel more like my knife then her's so I am doing the roses.
Finally my question, this ivory is very fragile, ou may see in the pic I have already repaired it, I have heard of stabilized mammoth ivory, I am guessing/thinking of dipping it in clear epoxy resin.
Any ideas/suggestions
thanks in advance
kevin(bonehead11)benge

Edited March 14, 200917 yr by bonehead11
add pic

You might try Minwax wood hardener and preservative, I don't know if it will work on Mammoth Ivory though. It works very well on wood

SEnd it out and have it done....It is pricey and getting rare...dont risk it

I'm with Rich. Proper stabilizing doesn't involve just dipping. It involves dipping, then pulling a vacuum and soaking in order to get the stabilizer to penetrate deep into the substrate. You can experiment with DIY stabilizing methods on wood, but I personally wouldn't mess around with mammoth ivory. I'd let someone with experience and the right equipment do a first-class job.

you and rich are probably right but I have been out of work for over a year so sending it out is out of the guestion, and most of my adventures have been about learning new things. that is a great idea to use vacumn, I have a vacumn casting machine too!
I had bought this ivory at a flea market in s.f. about 10 years ago, along with some elephant ivory and one walrus tusk,I paid $130 for the wooly ivory and to me ot is worth the risk.
I had checked, back then with an ivory seller (in the back of a gun magazine) who lived in alaska and he acted as though every alaskan had a pile of ivory in his back yard. Is it really so hard to come by?

Edited March 17, 200917 yr by steve sells
more empty space

Check e bay and any other sources you can google up .....that will give you an idea about the value of ivory. And with the ivory laws it may be the elephant ivory may be illegal unless you have the proper paper work....

thanks rich, I think the legal part comes in if you are selling it over state lines or federal , I am not sure but I am not selling it anyway, I made a set of grips for my gold plated 9mm out of some of it and grips for my .45 out of the rest.
but since I switched to doing a rose engraving for this project I will have to adopt those grips to this knife. and maybe scrimshawed. Someone said that mammoth ivory was becoming hard to get and I wonder if that is true, I still picture all those Alaskans with their ivory piles in their back yard.

Staff note: In the USA and many other countries, simple possession of Ivory is a serious violation, without the proper papers don't even have it in your shop.

Edited June 17, 200917 yr by mod07
formatting + mod note,

Good luck. I'd say that putting the vacuum caster to work on this project would probably be a good idea. The pros say that they use acrylic resin: Wood Stabilizing Specialists, Int'l., LLC | Info, Hints, & Tips! I'm sure it'll need to be thinned.

Bonehead, your wife is a saint!

Good luck. I'd say that putting the vacuum caster to work on this project would probably be a good idea. The pros say that they use acrylic resin: Wood Stabilizing Specialists, Int'l., LLC | Info, Hints, & Tips! I'm sure it'll need to be thinned.

thanks matt that's what I was looking for

Bonehead, your wife is a saint!

you don't know the half of it, she is an angel

It looks like what you have there is a section of "bark" the rough outer layer of the tusk. I have worked some of this in my jewelery and it is rather fragile. If you get a little deeper into the tusk it is a lot better working ivory but the bark will need some sort of stabilization. Since most of pieces were small I never bothered so I have no suggestions for stabilization.

It looks like what you have there is a section of "bark" the rough outer layer of the tusk. I have worked some of this in my jewelery and it is rather fragile. If you get a little deeper into the tusk it is a lot better working ivory but the bark will need some sort of stabilization. Since most of pieces were small I never bothered so I have no suggestions for stabilization.

I think you are right, when I first got it the layers were seperating by 1/8 inch at least so I applied epoxy and clamped it overnight then gound and sanded and polished to shape, great so far , but as soon as I drilled a whole the thin outer decorative layer began to shatter, it is very brittle,I repaired it and decided it would have to be used or my own projects and not sold and left it for another day. considering all it has been through I thought a tough coating of resin might save the day.just an idea
kevin benge

Hi, if every Alaskan had Ivory in his back yard, I'd be a rich man right now! Ivory is getting a little harder to come by, and it helps if ya know who to talk too! and so far it seems that I have not managed to talk to the right people!!!

Edited June 17, 200917 yr by mod07
typo

Hi, if every Alaskan had Ivory in his back yard, I'd be a rich man right now! Ivory is getting a little harder to come by, and it helps if ya know who to talk too! and so far it seems that I have not managed to talk to the right people!!!

When I was looking for ivory, 10 or 15 ears ago there was an ad in the back of "guns and ammo" 2 guys in alaska would sell me a 1 foot section of mammoth ivory for $400 I think, or what ever you wanted.check it out they may still be there

Edited June 17, 200917 yr by mod07
typo in quote

Bonehead-
Try a product called "restore-it" (sp) it is a very thin epoxy resin that will work in a vacuum. The fumes are deadly so have the exaust go to open air. One thing I don't remember is if it is UV stabilized. I use it under paint on wood. It has natural oils that help it bond. Another way would be to submerge it in epoxy and apply pressure. Then cut away the excess epoxy.

Bonehead-
Try a product called "restore-it" (sp) it is a very thin epoxy resin that will work in a vacuum. The fumes are deadly so have the exaust go to open air. One thing I don't remember is if it is UV stabilized. I use it under paint on wood. It has natural oils that help it bond. Another way would be to submerge it in epoxy and apply pressure. Then cut away the excess epoxy.

fewood, thanks for the idea, I will look into "restore it", I had been thinking of the epoxy idea too.
Grass valley? I went to jr. high there 1960 to 1964 Hennessey. I love grass valley.

fewood, thanks for the idea, I will look into "restore it", I had been thinking of the epoxy idea too.
Grass valley? I went to jr. high there 1960 to 1964 Hennessey. I love grass valley.

Thanks!, we love it here too. Only been here for about 10yrs though. From our property, we look out at the coast range around Clear lake...did you get snow today?

Thanks!, we love it here too. Only been here for about 10yrs though. From our property, we look out at the coast range around Clear lake...did you get snow today?

I saw a truck at six a.m. covered w/ snow but none at this elevation, the mountains had snow, cob mt, snow mt.st helena. and I had it wrong hennesse was the grammer school nevada union jr was the jr high.

Good luck. I'd say that putting the vacuum caster to work on this project would probably be a good idea. The pros say that they use acrylic resin: Wood Stabilizing Specialists, Int'l., LLC | Info, Hints, & Tips! I'm sure it'll need to be thinned.

Good. Thanks for sharing

Nope it's *possession* of un-documented ivory, no crossing of state lines needed. One reason that the mammoth stuff is liked as it's easy to prove it predates the ban.

If it were me, I'd buy a can of Nelsonite from Darren Ellis, pull your vaccum with the piece in it, and go from there. Mammoth ivory responds well to superglue to repair small surface cracks and fill little gaps, but for overall strength I reccomend a stabilizer.

Bonehead,the Alaskan Mammoth/Mastodon ivory is known world-wide for being of the poorest grade,very often.(It really is not that rare,or high-priced.If you guys are interested in it for knife scales,i'd recommend contacting Mark Knapp(not sure of his coordinates right now,Frosty?).He's an exellent knifemaker himself,and has been supplying great quality scales to folks for many years.).

The weathered/oxidised layer that you seem to be struggling with is usually simply discarded,it's just too much to cope with.I have known a carver in the past that did use some of the delaminated layers for assorted jobs.Ivory is very porous,and simply soaked in oil,or heated in it,better yet,instantly becomes pliant and flexible.If you care to,in essence,encapsulate it in epoxy,or the like,it shouldn't be rocket science-the stuff will soak right in...None of the above will reassemble the delam,of course,so that you will need to restrain the chunk from coming apart.
But none of these will make a piece of decent material,if that is desired,it can be obtained.It just need to originate from a tusk that is not so far gone.

Best of luck to everyone with their projects,respectfully,Jake.

Arial Salaviria stabilizes his own by placing the wood or bone in a air tight plastic bag with a small amount of resin. He then hooks the bag to a vacuum and puts negative pressure in the bag. The bag with wood and resin are placed in a sealed steel container and air pressure is piped in up to 150 psi. This is left for 24 hours. When removed the resin has penetrated the entire wood. Here is a link to his web site. Ariel Salaverria Custom Knives - Damascus Custom Knives - Tutorials