Thread: Need help with mammoth scales

It is an interesting question as to whether mammoth ivory is fossilised or not. From most of the websites that sell it I get the idea that it has been gathered from frozen siberian permafrost, so rather than being fossilised it has been kept in a kind of natural deep-freeze.

Some shows I saw on TV that extracted the animals said that the meat could still be eaten, and you could see that the skin and hair were almost as when the creatures were alive.

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

It is an interesting question as to whether mammoth ivory is fossilised or not. From most of the websites that sell it I get the idea that it has been gathered from frozen siberian permafrost, so rather than being fossilised it has been kept in a kind of natural deep-freeze.

Some shows I saw on TV that extracted the animals said that the meat could still be eaten, and you could see that the skin and hair were almost as when the creatures were alive.

Regards,
Neil

Hmm so mammoth hide strops would be a possebilety?

Much of the surface mammoth sold especially as knife scale material has a lot of coloration and thats how the process starts. First as staining by minerals and then the process begins. Most of this stuff hasn't been burried long enough to turn it like petrified wood is but partially maybe.

As I recall in Siberia they dug the animals up and actually ate the meat.

Rock doesn't warp? Are you kidding? Rock can be twisted like a pretzel in nature. of course a lot is involved.

As it turns out I couldn't unwarp the scales. I clamped them to a brass bar and steamed them for 1 hour, the dried at 200 degrees f for 2 hours. After cooling, they returned to their warped shape.

I then glued them to a piece of ivory paper micarta, clamping them tightly. This took out a lot of the warp. Next I flat sanded as much of the micarta off as I could. This left me with a flat micarta liner inside of the mammoth.

At Office Depot I found a display with Sharpie permanent markers in a wide variety of colors. I used these to color the micarta to match very closley the color of the mammoth. The scales are a little thicker than I would like, but at least they close cleanly now.

Thanks to all for your advice

Bob @ OCD Razors