Dale,

I have never used Mammth Tooth before. Steve Culver has some, if I remember correctly. It seems he discussed working with it a couple years ago on another forum. I figure he'll comment pretty soon.

The things I have heard is that it's brittle and to drill it, you have to be very careful. Also, I suspect you might think about drilling your pin holes slightly over sized to lessen the odds of cracking it. I'll be watching this thread too. Lin

Thanks Lin,

That's why I came here for advice. I knew someone would steer me in the right direction.

Dale

I REALLY dislike the stuff! <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//biggrin.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':D' /> I've had a number of folks ask me to build them a knife with Mammoth tooth....and I just refuse to do it. When it first started showing up on the market, I purchased some and tried it...... It's extremely fragile, flakes and chips worse than pearl ever thought about, and when finished, it has all kinds of tiny voids that you dare not even touch with a buffer (loads up like white micarta does).

I did sell a couple of knives with mammoth tooth handles, but it's just not something I will do again.....of the two I sold, one came back because the client had dropped it on his kitchen floor (tile) and broke one of the scales....I replaced the handle scales with African Blackwood. The client who purchased the other has spoken to me a number of times, and if the subject of the "Mammoth Tooth Knife" comes up, he always makes mention of how awkward and heavy that handle feels compared to the other knives he has purchased from me.

I'm just not a fan of the stuff as a handle material...I think it's difficult to work, a pain to finish, fragile, and overly heavy. If it were me, I would either talk the client into another handle material, or just refuse to build the knife for him/her.

Thanks Ed. Since he's already got the stuff and wants it used, I'll give it a try. Although I haven't worked with it, I've looked at and handled some knives with handle made from it. I personally didn't care for it. After this knife, I doubt I'll use it again.

Dale

Hi Dale,

Mammoth tooth is pretty much your worst nightmare to use for handle material. It can be done, and nicely too, but working with it requires some special techniques, as well as a LOT of luck.

Mammoth tooth has very hard and very soft areas. The white/gray stripes are (I think) tooth enamel and are extremely hard; very similar to stone. The areas between the white/gray stripes are (again, I think) tooth dentine. These areas are very soft; similar to soft wood.

Mammoth tooth is filled with cracks that will often result in the piece breaking completely in two. Vibration from machining or rough handling can cause it to break along a crack. It is possible to super-glue the two pieces back together; IF it breaks cleanly and you don't lose a small piece of the material. I have heard of makers flooding mammoth tooth with super-glue before working it to try and prevent breaking. I've never done this, but think it is worth trying. I have yet to make a mammoth tooth handle without having at least one of the slabs break.

Sawing: Mammoth tooth can be cut with a sharp, good quality metal cutting band saw. GO SLOWLY. Mammoth tooth will sometimes break during sawing.

Grinding: The only belts that I have found that work decently on mammoth tooth are silicon carbide. The suppliers use lapidary equipment to cut the tooth slabs; because the hard areas are just like stone. If you want a visual on what mammoth tooth grinding is like, get a piece of gravel out of your driveway and try grinding it.

Drilling: Mammoth tooth will ALWAYS chip out where the drill comes out the back. I have tried everything that I know to prevent this, but have had no luck. I have even super-glued the mammoth tooth to a piece of steel before drilling and it still chipped out. I think the material cannot take the downward and twisting force from the drill bit and it simply shatters. If you have to drill the hole with the bit exiting on what will be the finished surface of the handle, you have to leave enough material in the area where you drill to allow you to grind away the chipped out area. I usually leave about 3/32" of material to grind away after drilling; and pray that it will be enough.

You also have to plan your pin placement to avoid the white/gray stripes. These hard areas will deflect a drill bit. This becomes more difficult if the stripes are at an angle through the material. I use carbide drill bits on mammoth tooth and chuck them up as short as possible to avoid deflection.

Finishing: Because mammoth tooth is made up of very hard and very soft areas, you must use a hard backing when grinding or sanding. Slack belting will wash out the soft areas leaving a wavy surface. You must also do all hand sanding with a sanding block.

Because of the limitations of mammoth tooth, it is difficult to make a handle that has a lot of curved and/or radiused areas. Avoid handle designs that create small projecting areas of handle material, as these small projections will almost certainly break off.

I once made a hunter using two slabs of mammoth tooth and mortised tang construction. It took me 3 1/2 hours to mill the mortises, using a carbide end mill. The end mill would squeal every time that it hit one of the hard areas. I had to go very slowly through the hard areas to avoid heat build-up. One of the slabs broke in two three times during the milling operation and had to be removed from the mill and super-glued back together each time. The $30 end mill was destroyed.

If you plan your project well, use the proper techniques and are lucky enough not to have a piece of the material break off and disappear, you can make a very interesting handle from mammoth tooth.

Let me know if you have any other questions about using this material.

Thanks Steve. Nightmare sounds like the right discription. I'll tell my customer what you and Ed have said and see if he still wants to go through with it. Maybe I can talk him into something else. I have some really nice iron wood I can show him. It not I'll let yall know how it turns out.

Dale

Just my two cents (and they aren't worth that much!) but on fineturnage.com the have whats called "mammoth ivory matrix" which is bits and pieces mounted in resin. Personally I think it looks pretty "cool" and might be both easier to work with and have the same "heres a knife with a mammoth ivory handle" effect.