All About Pocket Knives

Need some help; I have an older Case canoe, that I want to have redone with Mammoth tooth, and file work. I saw; on one of MM's post that he, wouldn't do the Mammoth tooth again. ANY recommendations? Thanks.


Luckypaul777

I'll do tooth if it's stabalized but won't re-pin it.

MM, you won't re pin the shield back on? Just curious would'nt matter to me, I was also thinking maybe tooth but I did hear it can crack like pearl. Is it just best to stick with the Ivory?

I've stayed away from tooth as I've heard it's rather brittle to work with, more so than most other materials. Also heard trying to peen anything through it is a crap shoot on the best of days. Kaleb is probably suggesting if he were to do it, he would makeup the handles to be pinless. It would save the agony of starting over after one unlucky tap with a hammer.

Ya I think thats good advice...I think I convenced myself to stick with the Ivory 2 days ago.

Darksev wrote:I've stayed away from tooth as I've heard it's rather brittle to work with, more so than most other materials. Also heard trying to peen anything through it is a crap shoot on the best of days. Kaleb is probably suggesting if he were to do it, he would makeup the handles to be pinless. It would save the agony of starting over after one unlucky tap with a hammer.

exactly, repinning scales or shields on or of mammoth tooth is trouble waiting to happen. It is very hard and broke the teeth right off a new bandsaw blade. I have learnt to cut it with the dremel and a cut off wheel, and as for the sahping, twice as many belts as normal and have your patience level set high!

I have done only 4 or 5 knives with mammoth tooth. I used a Starret Bi-Metal blade to cut them all with at metal cutting Bandsaw at 60 RPM. I left about 1/8 to 1/4 inch to grind off with the Bader once they were glued onto the knife. Here I used a powerful shop vac and wore a respirator as the Bader will throw a lot of dust but will get it done quickly. Maybe I got lucky or dumb and lucky. I have a trim saw for lapidary now that will make short work of it. To rehandle took 40 to 45 minutes total maybe on a Buck 110 for pinless.