Thread: Ivory Repair?

Originally Posted by 10Pups

I will get pics of what I can. The one made into a cribbage board sits on a table near his dinning room. I can't remember where the other is but I am sure it's just laying around his place. It may prove my memory bigger then real life.
This is about ]<------------6"----------->[ right ?

I wouldn't know, I use the metric system!
So should the US since Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act in 1975, hehe.

And your link were much better than my stupid Cites thing, Cites is where to go for the info, but they work hard to hide it, grrr!

Bah, and FEH at the metric system! Next thing you know, they will want me to use a metric clock to tell time!

So, if I decide to undertake this task, do any of you know the safest way to straighten the slight warp of the scales?

Americans don't always do what Congress says. Besides I have never seen one at the auto parts or hardware store so as far as they know it has been done.

Good, what kind of world would it be if everything everywhere where the same...

Ivory and walrus can be bent if you soften it with steam or in hot water, you will feel when it starts to give and then you clamp it to a fixture.

In many ways the metric system is superior to our inch system IMHO. I became familiar with it through working on bicycles over the past 40 years. Like most Americans, I guess, kicking and screaming about having to learn something new, but I'm glad I did. YMMV.

Does it hold its shape when cooled? or does it have that plastic effect where it returns to its curved state. If so, would it be better to heat/straighten/cool wash rinse repeat until it stays straight?
Or should it be taken slightly past straight, so when it cools it springs back a little and lands on straight?

Originally Posted by Magpie

Does it hold its shape when cooled? or does it have that plastic effect where it returns to its curved state. If so, would it be better to heat/straighten/cool wash rinse repeat until it stays straight?
Or should it be taken slightly past straight, so when it cools it springs back a little and lands on straight?

Either way, it depends on the ivory how "springy" it is, but it's really easy to do.
It can also be done with chemicals but I don't remember really how to do that and my books are in a chaos state right now.

A steam nozzle is the best, then you can heat it locally exactly where you want it to bend.
Always heat and cool it slowly!!!

More edit, hehe!

Actually I don't think you need to clamp it, boil some water, put the lid on so steam come out the side,
gloves on and just hold it, bend it to the shape you like and let it cool, it will be softer than before for a while but will become harder with time
Arrrrgh, now I want to work with some horn/bone again!

Found this about ivory; Guitar Parts - Bone and Ivory Working Tips

Originally Posted by Magpie

The blade on this is pretty much toasted. I usually save all of them, but this one is just not worth the effort. The whole reason it was on the work bench was to unpin and put a nicer blade into such wonderful scales.
So Walrus is the consensus?

Do any of you think that a simple ca glue repair would last? or is this baby gonna need some tender Gsixgunn, Voidmonster, or Undream lovin?

Sorry it's taken me a while to get to this. The cold/flu I mentioned in the Elliot restore thread has continued to kick my everloving ass. I'm finally mostly better!

Since it's a fresh break, the fracture planes should be very clean. I'd just evenly spread a gel-formulation CA onto one side and very carefully bring them back together.

With ivory and CA, it's tricky because the glue wants to polymerize in an awful hurry when it's sidled up to something as neat as ivory. The gel formulations give you a tiny bit more literal wiggle room, but not what I'd call a lot. Sometimes I forget this and bond ivory with raw CA. Pretty much every time I do that, I get an un-aligned bond and then I've got to lose material in sanding to get it all evened out.

I think the entire project is toast,cannot make a silk purse out of a sows ear.
trash it and move on.