Started making ivory scales. Does anyone sand with anything over 600 grit before hand-polishing?
I've had good luck with using mineral oil with my 600 git. They are alot of fun to make. Lucky to have a 20 pounds
Looking for feedback
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Started making ivory scales. Does anyone sand with anything over 600 grit before hand-polishing?
I've had good luck with using mineral oil with my 600 git. They are alot of fun to make. Lucky to have a 20 pounds
Looking for feedback
I haven't built a set out of ivory but on the dozen sets of horn bone and acrylics I have done I have sanded to 12000 grit using micromesh pads.
When I first started out I found that 600 grit and buffing with rouge buff was good enough, I'm in the process of swapping all those scales out now, they have nowhere near finish micromesh + buffing leaves.
Eric
Edit......
All horn and bone seem to love micro-mesh!
You need to contact member "pixelfixed". He's our resident ivory guru...
You'd best inform yourself about ivory or you're going to find the feds pounding your door down. If I had 20 pounds, I wouldn't be talking about it. Even the repurposing of it is illegal (i.e., even using old piano keys as replacements in a different piano.) Read this: CITES Lacey Act Contents
I sanded Ivory scales to 2k wet/dry sandpapre the hand polished with Mothers Mag & Aluminum Polish, turned out great......
A while back I saw a picture of officials in Africa burning a big, BIG; pile of ivory tusks. They had been seized from poachers, and those who deal with them. I normally just shrug off such a picture and move on, but this really made me feel angry. Don't get me wrong, poachers are scum, you can play in the children starving at home tune, but, that's a whole 'nuther thread. What angered me was the waste. What was done had been done, burning the ivory keeps it from the market that drives the business. But the waste. It seemed to me that since they had denied the product to the bad guys, why not sell it to the good guys? Use the monies gained to pay for more wardens and better control of the existing herd. I've heard of one country over there who provide hunts, very limited and very expensive. Use the money for the elephants and were doing very well with a healthy growing herd.
I'm sure someone will come along and point out what I'm missing, I know it can't be that easy. But burning a pile of ivory, to me, someone who used to hunt and still will when I can again; seems like a crappy way to honor the dead who gave up their tusks.
Even today,sport hunted tusks can be brought into this country.
The CITES laws are all about banning Importation and exportation Of new Ivory.
Old African ivory that is in this country today is legal and what is here legally is well documented.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...one/leagal.jpg
CITES laws governing EU countries appear to be stricter. As far as existing ivory scales are concerned, they must have been 'worked' before 1947, then they need no paperwork or permits. That means that they must be in a finished condition - all other stuff like scraps, etc which could be worked-up is banned. So you could have rough-cuts that were intentioned to be scales, they could be over a hundred years old, but in the EU you couldn't work them up into the finished product, you can't sell them, export them or get papers for them - all you are allowed to do is own them. The trade in modern ivory is banned altogether.
Regards,
Neil
Very true Neil.Even if one travels to EU or Canada with an Ivory scaled Razor thats 150 yrs old,on the offchance customs detects it as Ivory,and you do not have a paper trail from the day it was made,It will before your very eyes be confiscated and smashed with a hammer,than severe fines will be levied.
The funny is,great britain has the largest stores of African Ivory in the world,thousands of tons taken during the conquests of Africa and india,Is part of the national treasures,They sold a million Lbs of Ivory to China in the past two yrs.
Which makes mammoth or mastodon ivory ideal. Dug up from the ground, no fresh killing of an endangered species.
Don't misunderstand, I like ivory, probably better than any other handle material when I can get it.
I don't much care for the unreasonable application of "all or nothing at all" thinking that some groups managed to persuade others into believing. I've had to educate customs folks about the differences in ivories on the spot. Knowing a slight nuance can be just too much trouble for some folks who want life to be easy and uncomplicated.
Governments, as always, control resource management to make a profit, just as businesses do.
This past October National Geographic did a big piece on poaching elephants for ivory, i was stunned to read that 25,000 thousands were killed last year only. Interestingly they also claimed that most of the ivory was used for religious artifacts.
Whats happening today Is horrible without question:(
I was traveling to a knife show, crossing an international border. Since all the bags were x-rayed, it should have been obvious that I had my table ware present. No barriers to any of that. But, subject to physical inspection the question was asked as to handle materials. I said "mammoth ivory" for a couple scales that were blue/brown, clearly showing the correct dentine lines and all the inspector heard was "ivory". Once the supervisor appeared, I asked for a moment's pause and explained the differences between elephant and fossilized ivory including the time spent underground and how none of the previous three generations of human beings could possibly have participated in the death of the animal merely to obtain the tusks. I think he let me go because the ivory was not classic white, it was a story he'd never heard before and because I had a ready internet site reference that explained the differences in detail.
But, the delay meant that the odds of running across someone who won't listen or is not allowed to, or only has a limited ability to respond to certain key words in a sentence, becomes greater and so I no longer travel with ivory materials just to avoid the hassle.