handling MOP

[EdStreet]

OK I got some very high quality MOP slabs for a folder. I was wondering if there's anything I need to be aware of before working with it, tips, tricks, useful info, etc..


3 3/4" long x 1 1/4" wide x 3/32" thick

Ed

[Frank Niro]

Yes those scales look great ! Buying that quality means almost no chance on internal deffects of any sort and it means the workability of the pearl will be consistant. Great. You can cut it with a fine toothed band saw. I use sharp 120 grit Hermes J flex belts to begin with and go to 220 and 400 of the same on the machine. Pearl will take the edge off of belts fairly quickly. It's a big mistake to try to use dull belts.You will see scalding and burnt coloring which will mean you now will see the result of trying to go cheap on the sandpaper.When in doubt, go to another new one. When drilling holes use new drill bits and cutting fluid. I use a pecking motion when drilling with not a lot of downward pressure. Hand sand bolsters and pearl together down to 800 grit. Leave the bolsters on when polishing the pearl but do not make an effort to polish the bolsters until the pearl scales are completed and then removed if that's what you will be doing. You can use either the usual green or white to polish but if you are going to do more in the future and ivory too get some of the "special" green that K & G sells. It will do an even better job.
Hope this helps . Don't hesitate to ask . I will try to help.
I love the pearls and I find them very easy to use. I hope you do too. Frank

[EdStreet]

oh ok thanks!!!

I was thinking it was soft and not that hard, needed some type of ring around the ends to support it from chipping and laminating, etc...

Well I am in for a treat that's for sure. I have a scroll saw and use it often for cutting scales. Might come in handy here, I know it does a super good job on sterling silver.

Ed

[Frank Niro]

That will work real well ! Of course cut it oversize , place it on the scale and then grind it down. I use the 120 for this. At this stage I do the grinding to the scales on the table of my 2 x 72 with a flat platten. You can do most with the pearl face down on the table but when you get close turn it over and go slow with little strokes and lots of checking. Frank

[Drac]

Go to page 6:

http://www.tkca.org/plugin_files/05_April.pdf

I hope this helps some,
Jim

[EdStreet]

ok that helps alot! So this stuff is not the super fragile breathe on it the wrong way and it's trashed material that many states it is.

I was concerned about having the MOP along the edges of the folder but I see in most all of those example they did just that.

Ed

[Frank Niro]

Ed.
make sure you ckeck out the bottoms of the scales for flat. The easiest way to do this I have found is to zig zag the bottom with a marker like a Sharpie and then stroke it on 120 grit sandpaper taped to a real flat surface. A piece of plate glass will work. I have a large piece of one inch "granite" cut from a counter top. It works as good as it gets. Frank

[EdStreet]

OK! Am making progress, this info here has been super helpful. I cut the scale down with a scroll saw and one side was somewhat black for a very small section. so I didn't do that one anymore. I did all my usual handing methods and took it very gently on the belt sander I have (4x36) with a 120g belt. It works just like olivewood does (my favorite wood of all)

Here we have a cut/shaped and base drilled bolster, I just dont have the countersink on the screw holes nor the edges beveled. I also have some slight overhang around 1/32 on the edges.

This is a 1084/15N20 tight twist damascus blade by Mr Leavitt from Snake River.







The reason I did no counter sink the screw holes yet is because while working with it I discovered how intense the swirl patterns are and I was thinking color case hardened screws so I may be going that route.

In the photo's there's a gap on one side next to the bolster, that's because the top scale screw is not all the way thru the liner, I was looking to see what type of screws I wanted to go in here. The 2 types that are in there now I am not to happy with them. Dont suppose anyone has some info on this.


Ed

[Frank Niro]

Ed.
I sure like your folder! I believe your pearl work is going very well.
I use button head gold plated screws for the outside of my folders that are not every day use. Frank

[derek parker]

ed
ive been waiting awhile to see that blade get used, and man it sure does look nice.
the MOP is a great addition, and sets off that blade perfectly.

ive been working with MOP for a little bit and the only thing i can offer that i havent seen.......it gets HOT!! lol, i learned that the hard way. that and always wear the mask....anyway, knife looks great, cant wait to see it when its done.

[Frank Niro]

Well here it is again. That hot material thing. It can mean To fine grit belts, to much pressure, too long holding on but most oftenTOO WORN belts. If you try to "get by" with worn or poor quality belts , your work will never get to look "clean" . A perfect example of good grinding and "clean" looking work is this folder of Ed's. There is a lot of sandpaper cost in making a knife. Frank

[EdStreet]

Interesting to note. I used a new scrollsaw blade to cut the ends off the scales so I would have some left over scrap that's usable for other projects. The second cut I made (width of the scales) left about 1/3 of it black. I am thinking this parallels wood, alot of the burning depends on the belt speed,

Another issue I ran into was glue! I use locktite 324 speedbonder for just about everything and it had major difficulties bonding to this stuff but after try #4 and #3 it held correctly. Perhaps it's my methods or something but i've never had this much problem, esp with 324, it's always bonded TO well.

What I used was an 80 grit 4x36 belt to profile with and a 120 grit 4x36 belt to smooth with. I would go right to left then left to right, remove it and look. then repeat. My fingers were super close to the belt and I took my time and let the belt do the cutting. I also use my fingers to remove the belt cleaner off the running belts on the finer grits, you wont catch me doing that on the ceramic belts.


Ed

[derek parker]

those little scraps of MOP will come in handy......i have a whole bunch of pieces laying around and ive done three backspines out of it for customers that had production knives......and one guy had an MTECH, which is complete crap, but it had three holes milled on both sides of the handle (think cold steel flipper)......so i filled in 4 holes (the last two were covered by the pocket clip) with MOP and charged $40......only about $5 worth of material......anyway, its great stuff, make sure you hold on to the scraps.....

[EdStreet]

so where do I get the gold plated screws for this?

Someone said the photo's does not do the mother of pearl justice so I had to break out the bigger toys for some shots. Even tho it's not 100% finished yet I am working on the photo's because this presents a HUGE problem. There's mother of pearl which burns out super easily, the flame shifts drastically by the slightest movements and the damascus blade needs more lighting to see all the details.


Here's a good base shot, you can see the flame super well on this side.


here we have a closeup on the flame, super good detail to.


Tried to balance both sides with the lighting

[Drac]

Pretty good there on those shots.

Your can get the screws through Texas Knife supply. I just got a couple sets for a push dagger I'm doing. They?re a bit pricy but well worth it for the pearl.

Jim