When looking at it; I must have bent it a little, and it cracked on the bottom. 
It didn't break all the way into; is there any way to save it? I want touch the red one. Thanks.Luckypaul777
Mammoth Tooth
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Luckypaul777
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- Location: Lexington, SC
Mammoth Tooth
This may be a dumb question; but I'll ask anyway. I bought some mammoth tooth; that was supposed to be (stabilized). When looking at it; I must have bent it a little, and it cracked on the bottom. It didn't break all the way into; is there any way to save it? I want touch the red one. Thanks.
Luckypaul777
When looking at it; I must have bent it a little, and it cracked on the bottom. It didn't break all the way into; is there any way to save it? I want touch the red one. Thanks.Luckypaul777
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jonet143
- Gold Tier
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Re: Mammoth Tooth
bummer. maybe if you could inject some epoxy into the crack without stressing anymore. it may have already been cracked.
johnnie f 1949
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on the cutting edge is sometimes not the place to be.
please support our troops - past and present
if not a member...join the NKCA! they're on our side.
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Hukk
- Posts: 4546
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Re: Mammoth Tooth
I would just use some Cyanoacrylate aka ethyl-2-cyanoacrylate (CA as we should call it) or super glue of which there are many types. Some are super fast drying (don't ask how I know it dries in 5 seconds 
). For this the regular old Walmart brand will work just fine. Actually you may want to flatten it between sheets of wax paper or foil and a heavy book. After flattening it -DO NOT move it and you do not need to leave the book on it usually. Once it's flat it will usually stay that way. Leave it on the wax paper or foil and slather the piece with super glue so that it gets down into all the cracks and fills them on one side. Then do the other side. Any excess can be ground off. You should be able to pick it up and you can super glue the other side also. Likely there will be foil or wax paper stuck to the tooth when you are finished. It will grind off fairly easy. I've done this a few times and it works great!
NOTE: On a break where you can see the ends, you can glue them end to end first, before coating it with CA. MAKE SURE YOU'RE DOING ALL THIS ON AS FLAT A SURFACE AS POSSIBLE IF YOU HEAR AN UGLY CRACK NOISE, DON'T WORRY, YOU'RE HERE TO FIX THAT AND IT WILL GIVE YOU AN END TO END BREAK TO GLUE TOGETHER ON A FLAT SURFACE!
This material has been stabilized and is a fossil really, so wear your respirator while sanding, grinding or buffing.
TIP: I did this with my son last summer and I don't think he cared very much until he saw that he cut one side of the tooth badly. What I did was to have him collect all the sawn off pieces and sort by color. He then crushed it to a very fine powder. It came in handy because he needed to fill some gaps. You can use CA if you are fast, but I had him use a 5 minute epoxy and mix the epoxy with the correct color of pulverized tooth dust. When he was done, you would never have known it had a big gap between bolster and tooth. he used 3 colors and I could not tell where he did the repair work.
). For this the regular old Walmart brand will work just fine. Actually you may want to flatten it between sheets of wax paper or foil and a heavy book. After flattening it -DO NOT move it and you do not need to leave the book on it usually. Once it's flat it will usually stay that way. Leave it on the wax paper or foil and slather the piece with super glue so that it gets down into all the cracks and fills them on one side. Then do the other side. Any excess can be ground off. You should be able to pick it up and you can super glue the other side also. Likely there will be foil or wax paper stuck to the tooth when you are finished. It will grind off fairly easy. I've done this a few times and it works great!NOTE: On a break where you can see the ends, you can glue them end to end first, before coating it with CA. MAKE SURE YOU'RE DOING ALL THIS ON AS FLAT A SURFACE AS POSSIBLE IF YOU HEAR AN UGLY CRACK NOISE, DON'T WORRY, YOU'RE HERE TO FIX THAT AND IT WILL GIVE YOU AN END TO END BREAK TO GLUE TOGETHER ON A FLAT SURFACE!
This material has been stabilized and is a fossil really, so wear your respirator while sanding, grinding or buffing.
TIP: I did this with my son last summer and I don't think he cared very much until he saw that he cut one side of the tooth badly. What I did was to have him collect all the sawn off pieces and sort by color. He then crushed it to a very fine powder. It came in handy because he needed to fill some gaps. You can use CA if you are fast, but I had him use a 5 minute epoxy and mix the epoxy with the correct color of pulverized tooth dust. When he was done, you would never have known it had a big gap between bolster and tooth. he used 3 colors and I could not tell where he did the repair work.
Hukk
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Luckypaul777
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- Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2008 4:46 pm
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Re: Mammoth Tooth
Thanks guy's, 
I was ready to toss it. I didn't realize; that ivory or tooth (stabilization) was gluing and filling in. Hukk I think that I can glue it end to end, and send it to MM, for a re-handle.
Luckypaul 777
I was ready to toss it. I didn't realize; that ivory or tooth (stabilization) was gluing and filling in. Hukk I think that I can glue it end to end, and send it to MM, for a re-handle.Luckypaul 777
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Hukk
- Posts: 4546
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Re: Mammoth Tooth
When you ship a piece of stone, pearl, or tooth cut 3 pieces of cardboard for each set of tooth or stone the same size as the tooth. Layer it cardboard, tooth, cardboard, tooth and cardboard for each set. Wrap masking tape across and up and down in this shape +, 2 places is plenty. You can get the cardboard free by using the Priority Mail boxes and cut the same size as the tooth. Do not use anything heavier than masking tape, MM won't like it and the pieces are most prone to breakage while un wrapping. This way he can open it easily with his knife.
Make sure you glue the pieces together on a flat surface, with foil or wax paper underneath so you don't glue the tooth to the table.
Good luck and show us a picture of the finished knife.
A set of mammoth tooth is prone to breaking and not all that uncommon.
If you ship with the tooth wrapped as I have outlined above and use plenty of styrofoam peanuts around it while shipping, its most likely to arrive whole. Just don't over do the tape, around twice is plenty. 
Make sure you glue the pieces together on a flat surface, with foil or wax paper underneath so you don't glue the tooth to the table.
Good luck and show us a picture of the finished knife.
A set of mammoth tooth is prone to breaking and not all that uncommon.
If you ship with the tooth wrapped as I have outlined above and use plenty of styrofoam peanuts around it while shipping, its most likely to arrive whole. Just don't over do the tape, around twice is plenty. Hukk
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Luckypaul777
- Posts: 1150
- Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2008 4:46 pm
- Location: Lexington, SC
Re: Mammoth Tooth
Thanks Hukk, I went back and repackaged with the cardboard. If this stuff is that fragile; how do you ever get it to fit the knife, without breaking?
Luckypaul777
Luckypaul777
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Hukk
- Posts: 4546
- Joined: Mon Mar 06, 2006 4:04 am
Re: Mammoth Tooth
I rough cut it on a metal cutting bandsaw using a Starret Bi-Metal blade at 60 RPM. Some pieces do not like ths but they can be glued back together. Then I shape it on my Bader which only takes a few minutes after the piece has been glued on I can be pretty rugged with it using Loctite 330. I'm working on it a couple hours later.
I just got in an Inland lapidary bandsaw and it's not set up yet. It has a 37 inch diamond tip blade and is water cooled. This will allow me to cut to exact size except I like to leave the area that butts up against the bolster a little big. Then I can get an exact fit but touching up the ends.
I can also drill holes in some pieces using a Dremel in a drill press mount with a diamond tip. This is done in a straight sided cup of water with a wood block attached to the bottom with some green lapidary wax. The tooth is attached to the wood block with green dopping wax and the drilling is done under water. To save a diamond bit for longer life only drill into the scale 1/3 of the time. The other 2/3 of the time spent is clearing the hole, all the dust will float to the top. You need to do this at about 100 RPM using a variable control that is available for the Dremel.
I just got in an Inland lapidary bandsaw and it's not set up yet. It has a 37 inch diamond tip blade and is water cooled. This will allow me to cut to exact size except I like to leave the area that butts up against the bolster a little big. Then I can get an exact fit but touching up the ends.
I can also drill holes in some pieces using a Dremel in a drill press mount with a diamond tip. This is done in a straight sided cup of water with a wood block attached to the bottom with some green lapidary wax. The tooth is attached to the wood block with green dopping wax and the drilling is done under water. To save a diamond bit for longer life only drill into the scale 1/3 of the time. The other 2/3 of the time spent is clearing the hole, all the dust will float to the top. You need to do this at about 100 RPM using a variable control that is available for the Dremel.
Hukk