Thread: Mother of Pearl woes

I've been wanting to try a Mother of Pearl re-scale since seeing Brad's work on here- basically I followed the same process of making a set of liners from nickel silver and then cutting 1.5mm MOP into sections.

Unfortunately, the temperature in my garage/workshop is probably too low for the epoxy resin to cure properly so I found that the piece on the left here started to lift away from the liner when I pinned everything together. That dark line you can see was a small fracture within the MOP - when I attempted to re-glue it back, the whole piece cracked.

So, unpin everything, clean the broken area and wait for a replacement piece of MOP.

I'll try and post better pictures when I've repaired everything - the quality of the MOP is superb but really difficult to capture. If anyone has any tips on getting a better picture please feel free. I used a tent with light from the sides and no flash in the photo below.

Looks pretty good from here mate
Great work

Tricky stuff that MOP. I would think that it is similar to horn in that there is so much depth that is impossible to capture with your camera. Perhaps a tripod and a lower shutter speed would help. What did you use as a liner. I have a very old set of very fragile bone scales that I would like to mount to a backer material to give it a little more substance. Hopefully your new pictures will show off the blade a bit too. I am looking forward to you next set of pictures, as this project is looking pretty nice.

I used 0.55mm nickel silver as the liner as it gives the necessary stiffness without being cumbersome - even then, the scales are quite weighty.

For your bone project, have you considered the paper based products used as spacers in knife making? They are available in various colours and are strong, moisture resistant and light enough not to spoil the overall appearance of your scales. You could even try dipping them in tea or coffee to get an approximate matching colour.

I've used it in the past to support scales that were broken at the pivot - having a backer to support both sides of the break makes for a much stronger repair.

Also Alpha Knife supplies sell very thin G10 - not sure what colours are available but it's another possible option.