Thread: Ivory Repair

I was just curious if anyone had any pointers on repairing some ivory or bone. I'm in the process of restoring a seven day set and I descaled them all and lightly sanded the insides of the scales with some new 220 wet/dry sandpaper following this website as a guide: Society of American Silversmiths - Working With Ivory
Planning on re-sealing the insides when I finish. The one pictured is going to need to be re-sealed entirely.

I'd like to repair a scale that cracked at the hinge pin as one of the scales broke all of the way through at the pin and is in two pieces. I thought to try some two-ton clear weld epoxy and after setting over night that didn't hold extremely well after cleaning it off a bit. I have them cleaned up for a second attempt now and was curious if anyone had some tips, right now I'm thinking maybe the epoxy to hold them a bit and letting it cure again and then some fiberglass backing or maybe just some fiberglass epoxy backing to secure them. Anyone done anything like this before?

http://straightrazorpalace.com/galle...ry-scales.html

I repaired that with an aluminum liner. You can also do a fiberglass cloth liner but I haven't tried that.

Thanks, well I bought some fiberglass cloth and the epoxy and hardener for it and figured I'm going to just do that. I'm epoxying them together right now, actually its curing right now to get the scale straight and together then I'll do the fiberglass liner for them. Think I'm going to practice on some junker scales I have set aside first though.

Well I was able to get good repair using fiberglass and the bondo all-purpose fiberglass epoxy and hardener. I used some fiberglass cloth with the epoxy.

The one scale that had broken completely into two pieces was repaired and I was able to get back pretty much the original shape of the scale, it might be only very slightly off see picture. For that one I used some two-ton epoxy weld to get it back into shape, preserving the small fractured bits on the end so as to get back to the original shape of the scale. Afterwards I used the fiberglass for a backing and sanded it down with 220 wet/dry sandpaper.

I didn't fiberglass the entire set I'm working on, just the two sets of scales that had cracked. One completely broken and the other not all of the way through yet.

I only used a single sheet of fiberglass on them, didn't do multiple layers just enough to hold them together. It's very thin, but you can tell there is fiberglass there I may sand down the fiberglass a bit more to smooth them out some more before finally sealing these scales.

The holes were already re-drilled though I still have quite a bit of more work to do before I'm done with the set I'm restoring. Just as a note this was pretty easy to do, I've never worked with fiberglass before and it was pretty simple here's a basic run-down of what I did. I used gloves, just as a note and pretty much just followed the instructions though it called for 80 grit sandpaper I used 220 just fine, didn't want to damage the scales while sanding.

1. Clean back-side of scales (were already previously sanded with 220 grit wet/dry sandpaper)
2. Cut the sheets an inch or so bigger than the scales
3. Mix the epoxy
4. Brushed on some epoxy to the side of scale being fiberglassed with a disposable brush
5. Apply fiberglass sheet
6. Brush on more epoxy going past the edge of the scale on all sides
7. Allow few hours to fully cure
8. Cut away excess with a hobby knife - was really easy
9. Sand with 220 grit wet/dry to get scale back to original shape
- this took probably the longest but not very long at all, had to sand the front and back I used a different piece of sandpaper for the front from the back and edges
10. Carefully re-drilled holes
11. Re-sanded front and back slightly to smooth any burs

Before I did this I did a quick run-through on some plastic scales that I had from de-scaling a razor with no intent to really re-use, was really very easy.

Hi there!
Nice work so far, but you can still see were it was broken.
The way I was learned was to start as you did then follow up with a shallow cut along the "dirt".
Then fill the cut with a mix of glue and ivory, bone, antler or what ever the material was,
try and get the "bonepowder" as fine as possible as it will take a better polish.
Sometimes it can be really hard to mix it with the glue, so do a few test first,
I used UV hardening epoxy since then I had time to mix it good.

Ah, thanks I didn't want to lose the original form of the scale as then the scales would no longer fit together properly when assembled for the razor. I think that was a bit beyond me as far as trying to fill it as you mentioned as well so I'll just live with the crack line. Some people think it gives the ivory character to see the cracks in it. I've also read the older ivory cracks naturally so it's a sign of age and sometimes desirable just as some like to see the patina on older ivory - these have been sanded though so most of the patina is gone. Thanks for the input though

Haven't tried it on ivory, but I use bleach on cracked watch dials, gets rid of the black lines. I just pour some in a shallow plastic tray, usually soak overnight. Don't know why it wouldn't work on the ivory, it's pretty stable stuff. Just use it before gluing up.

The website I referenced earlier talks about bleaching ivory to whiten it, here's what it says...

Bleaching ivory with hot Clorox water will remove deeply rooted dirt and will bleach the ivory. This is not recommended unless one desires white ivory as the patina will be lost along with the polish. If this is desired be sure to rinse the ivory in water that has a big splash of white vinegar in it as the vinegar water will stop the chlorine action upon the ivory. The entire process should be done in a few minutes as a prolonged soaking of ivory in a chlorine solution will dissolve the ivory. To avoid the chlorine situation altogether I recommend scrubbing a very dirty part with a toothbrush and toothpaste, rinsing it with lukewarm water, and then re-polishing it.
Should the ivory part have lost its polish from bleaching, extended use, exposure to household or silver cleansers , etc. then it can repolished with a little effort. If the finish is just dull it can be buffed by hand with a polishing cloth and Renaissance wax , Butcher's wax , or a good paste wax. If the part needs more to bring up a polish it is best to buff ivory with cloth or felt buffing wheels and white jeweler's rouge. I recommend utilizing a sewn wheel followed by a floppy wheel. These wheels need to be virgin and kept strictly for ivory. If metal or other materials have been buffed on these wheels they will not buff the ivory properly.


I also read on some other webpages that ivory could be whitened, if desired, with some lemon juice (squeezed from lemon) and water if I remember correctly, can be found easily enough if you do a google search on whitening ivory. I've decided to leave the crack, I'm just going to polish them up and seal them probably with CA. I may not though as the site I referenced says it's not really needed once ivory is polished so I may just leave them alone once I polish them up.

Just wanted to throw up the pics of the finished product. Still needs to be honed - and yes there is quite a chip in the toe of this one unfortunately. The rest of the set can be seen here: http://straightrazorpalace.com/galle...tml#post255878 ... doesn't have the close-ups like this one though

Edit: Just as a note the scales are naturally polished, no CA or other sealant on them. There is a few coats of poly on the inside over the fiberglass inner lining on this one though.

Originally Posted by bevansmw

The website I referenced earlier talks about bleaching ivory to whiten it, here's what it says...

To avoid the chlorine situation altogether I recommend scrubbing a very dirty part with a toothbrush and toothpaste, rinsing it with lukewarm water, and then re-polishing it.

This worked fantastically for me. I was repairing some custom ivory pistol grips, and, as the pistol had been used a bit after the fracture, the main part of the grips was a little darker than the fragments (yielding the same black line in some of these straight razor repairs). I used a very soft brush and colgate whitening paste (specifically just paste, with no gel or other goodies in it...I'm sure paste from other brands would work just as well). I just glued them and the line is almost completely gone. I'm hoping with a little polishing it will be almost impossible to see.

This makes sense, really, as ivory is pretty closely related to teeth...