Thread: How do I go about repairing cracked ivory?

I have some ivory scales that are cracked at the wedge end. It's a crack that goes through the pin to the end of the scale. No chips though.
I've searched a good bit and can't find any threads where people have fixed these cracks (except for threads where people back the ivory with some metal).
Can someone point me to these restoration threads? Or, is it ok to just use some epoxy or super glue over the crack and then sand the extra epoxy down?

My ivory experience is limited to using epoxy to bond ivory to nickel liners. That said, either epoxy or super glue should work - but epoxy may be the safer choice. I'm not sure if the super glue would react with (eat, dissolve, stain, etc) the ivory in any way or not. You could always apply a very tiny bit on the inside of a scale to test.

I'm sure someone with more experience with ivory will chime in soon too...

I think you'll struggle to make it stable with just the glue. You're obviously aware of liners, & it sounds like you don't want to go that way yet. I'm not familiar with this type of repair being attempted, but epoxy is sometimes used for bug bites in horn.

Oz posted this.
It's not the same, but may help.

This may be a little closer. Seems to have had great results.

On wedge ends I've always left them as is and hoped for the best. I have a couple in that condition and so far so good. I hope there is a fix and a knowledgeable member posts it. I will take advantage of it as well..... but I don't think there is.

If you have a dentist for a friend, you can have them use flowable dental composite material into the crack and then set it using their UV light. Works for teeth, gotta work for tusks. They can even match the color so that it doesn't look out of place. Here's the procedure:

1. Clean area
2. apply etchant for 30 seconds and rinse
3. apply bonding agent and dry with UV light
4. apply flowable composite
5. harden using UV light
6. sand flush

Does anybody do this repair?? I have one in need too?? I had asked one restorer & he said it don't work,, (repairing cracked ivory) I thought gluing it to a liner sounded like it would work?

Anybody done this? I don't know any dentist that would help

Kirk