Preparing Mammoth tooth for stabilizing

[levernut]

A friend recently gave me a mammoth tooth for handle material. I plan to make some full tang knives and use this material for the scales. I have contacted K&G and they have confirmed they can stabilize the tooth but mentioned that most mammoth tooth material is sawn to thickness before stabilizing. I need advice on how to saw the material, both the method and the size. The tooth has some cracks and I am concerned that the pieces will break apart if sawed too thin. K&G said they will try to stabilize the tooth whole but I am concerned that the center may not get stabilized. Advice, please.

 

[Frank Niro]

Stabilizing will still mean the big spaces will have to be filled with some good epoxy after the stabilizing is done . K&G are sure to know what they are doing but may be indicating that they can't give you a firm price until after they do their work. Ask them to tell you what size they need for what finishing size you want. It's not an easy material to work with and can still mean after their work that it may have large voids when you start working on it. Some is very hard with very soft areas. I recommend the use of silicon carbide belts that you can get from Tru Grit. Drilling holes in this stuff is easy if you are looking for chewed out craters. I use several sizes of both carbide and diamond coated drill bits and still will need to do recovery work at times. By the way, this is DEFINITELY NOT the material to use for any knife that will see use. I use a lot of mammoth tooth but still approach every new set I will use with lots of caution when it comes to the working of it. To see some of my work with this material you can go to Custom Knife Gallery. Frank