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My Brother supplied a small piece of Mammoth Ivory, big enough to make a heel cap. I have roughly shaped it, and would like to glue it to the heel of a mahogany neck. Once it is glued, I will feather it in. The question is, what glue to use? I can imagine using CA, yeller glue, or epoxy. Can any of you fine folks provide guidance, especially if any of the afore mentioned adhesives would be problematical?

here any wood glue may be your ticket.
bone glues a lot like wood.

A year ago I explored an ivory bridge like was used in the past. Consensus was that they used to use HHG, but that it never held as well on a bridge with all that force, but it would be just fine for a non-stressed part.

Ed

Yellow glue worked perfectly. It did act exactly like wood, as John suggested, and I was able to file and sand without fear of knocking the part off. Here, I know how you guys are about pictures.
Someone... didn't even think about a heel cap until after the neck was finished, so careful shaping, followed by touching up the french polish, was part of this project.

ColestineGuitar wrote:...Someone... didn't even think about a heel cap until after the neck was finished, so careful shaping, followed by touching up the french polish, was part of this project.

Nice job getting the cap on and that's a nice piece of ivory, too. I did the same thing; waited til everything was done before adding the cap. I used HHG to glue this one (below), but also use titebond/superglue for ivory inlay.

I have a friend in town who is 91 and owned the only gun shop in Manhattan in the 50/60's He specialized in antique arms repair and one day a gut ran into the shop and said he was with the movie crew shooting a movie down the street and he needed to rent 2 tommy guns ASAP. My friend had them , rented them, and them became the largest supplier of rented antique arms to hollywood. He started buying lots of western stye arms and as many with pearl and ivory grips as he could. Many had a cracked grip, and he could order a replacement grip in either pearl or elephant ivory for $7.50. He tossed all the broken parts in a couple of cigar boxes.

He is the one I went to looking for a piece of ivory 1 X 6 inches, but no such luck. He did however, make me a mortgage button for the top of my newel post in my new house:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ruby1638/ ... 735963286/

These were popular in the NE and especially on Nantucket. When you paid of your mortgage - typically 23-5 years in the early to mid 19th c. - you would roll it up and put it in the center of the newel post with the button on top, or sometimes burn it and put the ashes in there.

So if any of you have a friend into antique arms - check it out. The pieces are big enough for hell caps and all manner of inlay work.

Ed

Hah! Great stories (and pictures!). It is great to see how ivory was used in the past, and to have some of this rare material to work with.