Ed Twilbeck Posted November 8, 2006 Report Share Posted November 8, 2006 Ivory. I have some small thin pieces of Ivory. What I would like to know has anyone used epoxy with ivory. Has anyone used epoxy with ivory to adhere several pieces of ivory to each other? Has any one used epoxy to adhere ivory to ebony? Any help please. Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Duryea Posted November 8, 2006 Report Share Posted November 8, 2006 Epoxy will work fine for bonding ivory to ivory or ivory to ebony. That being said, the fit better be very good if you don't want an ugly glue line. You can also use a good cyanoacrylate. I prefer Loctite gel. I use this to dop stones for faceting. Very strong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastián Urresti Posted November 8, 2006 Report Share Posted November 8, 2006 Hi Ed, I work with bone and I think that ivory is more dense, what applys to bone must apply to ivory... I´ve never used epoxy but the glue that the woodworkers use (and a tight clamp) to glue bone to bone and bone to ebony and the result is ONE piece. The glue doesn´t leave space between the pieces glued, you can´t see even a line... I use a taz (the little plane jewelleres´ anvil) with different sandpapers to let the faces perfectly even then glue them and hold them 24 hours with a simple c-clamp to make sure that the glue will work (otherwise you can separate the two pieces with one hand) and after you can work with powertools and every other regular tool that you use. I hope that this explanation works! Hughs, Sebas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Ruslander Posted October 16, 2007 Report Share Posted October 16, 2007 I have a supply of antique piano keys that I've managed to remove the ivory from the wood. I like to scrimshaw on them and mount them to pieces of wood to create little sculptures, (of which I've posted pics on this site). Epoxy works great. I clean the excess off with laquer thinner, although David Broadwell recommended white vinegar, because of the toxicity of the thinner. I've also stacked the ivory keys together with epoxy and made a cool little insert for the inside top of a wooden sheath that I made. I filed out the slot for the knife blade to fit through and glued it in place. The choil then fit snugly into the slot. Nickel-silver went around as a collar on the outside. (I covered the basswood sheath in frogskin). It was neat and worked out well. I was intentionally looking for the sandwiching "lines" within the slot, so it all worked out. Sorry, no pics to show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Broadwell Posted October 17, 2007 Report Share Posted October 17, 2007 I've bonded ivory to many different things with epoxy and it works well. The trick is to use a good epoxy. The stuff in the bubble packs at the grocery story is poor quality epoxy. Use a marine or aircraft grade. I use System 3 marine epoxy. There are other good brands as well, such as West System. Also, as a general rule, the quicker the setting time the poorer the quality. As Mike mentioned, I use plain old white vinegar for clean up. It doesn't get in your liver and rot like lacquer thinner will! The techie at System 3 told me about the vinegar. Works well. I'm not very wild about CA adhesives. I haven't found any that work well and will hold for a long time. I can't even get it to stick my fingers together for long! David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Twilbeck Posted October 17, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 17, 2007 Thanks all for the input. I have used system 3 epoxy before and have hheard of the west system. . When I get a chance to work on the carving with the ebony and the scraps of ivory , I will post some pictures. Thanks again . Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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