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Originally Posted by Bill Vining
I make many folders with Mammoth Ivory and have to thin almost every piece. I usually take a small block of wood and attach some double sticky back tape to it. I then attach the mammoth piece with the bottom side out. This makes holding the piece a bit easier and keeps your hands away from the belts or disks. Very sharp belts will take of quite a bit of material real fast. If the piece starts to heat up, I use a small plate of aluminum as a quench plate. I just hold the piece down on the aluminum and it draws the heat out. I do this to keep the piece as cool as possible. As with other replies, you don't want the piece to get hot. You will not notice it right away but it will eventually start to stress and crack. Once I get the piece real close to it's final size, I soak it in Nelsonite for a day or two to seal it all up. They use Nelsonite to seal pool cues and Ive always had good luck with it. You can find smaller quantities of it at Ellis Knife Works.
http://refractory.elliscustomknifeworks.com/
Hope this helps
Bill |
Yep, Bill, it did help me this time. I am currently working on my first custom order since early 2007, when I became unable to build knives. This customer wants two linerlock barlows with mammoth ivory and
solid gold bolsters. I just ordered a quart of nelsonite from the Elliss's. I want everything to be as perfect as possible on these knives and don't want to gamble with the ivory. The customer is part of a jewelry store family, so he had their jeweler melt down old jewelry and cast the bolster material for me. $4,000.00 worth of gold on 2 knives, believe it or not. Now I have to turn quite a bit of it into grinding dust that goes onto the floor.
I'm feeling so much better since my successful parathyroid surgery that my Mom and I have signed up for a table at the Central Texas Knife Show in Roundrock, Texas this July. I have only a couple of knives on hand left for my table, so I'm going to ask this customer to lend me his knives for the show, and I have to build several more for the show in a very short time. God is great and time's a'wastin', as Snuffy Smith used to say.
Thanks, Bill, for the tip about nelsonite.