Hard to imagine that what stains your teeth and your coffee cup won't stain the little ivory bead.

The world of fine guns: if we're not cleaning, we're staining.

I posted this on the PH 20 thread ?..After the soaking in ..50-50 mix of black tea and iodine...and 100% iodine..the 3 beads came out 3 different shades. One matched my center bead well enough that it looks factory.That one screwed into the hole perfectly. The other 2 were lighter..None were really what I would call "yellowish or amber"..and I'm positive 2 were mammoth. I have one mammoth left that I will use the amber shellac on when it gets here. I suspect some ?? ivory beads ..are in fact..bone..

I've made parts out of bone - both cattle and moose - while repairing musical instruments. Nuts and saddles for guitars, mandolins and fiddles, and you can't tell any of them from ivory, especially if you use the right right part of the right bone. The front of the foreleg on bovines is the densest bone you can find anywhere and polishes up every bit as well as ivory.

Many vintage knives are handled in dyed bovine shin bone, which versatile material Richard refers to. However, of the ivory-handled knives I am aware of, I do not know of attempts to dye it. Ivory surely discolors over time, but if ivory is mainly of enamel and bone of calcium, dyes may “take” more readily with bone than ivory.

And, after staining an ivory bead, are you left with more of a superficial effect, easily rubbed off?

With a jeweler’s loupe I can readily see the capillaries in the bone that my vintage knives are handled in. They are what presumably transmit the dye enabling it to permeate the bone. And, boiling the bone with the dye is what accomplishes this in the knife industry.

Has any boiling with the dye been tried with the Mammoth ivory, or will that just dissolve the bead?

In any case, there has long been a practice of dying bovine shin bone for quality knife handles, for an appealing look that inheres and endures. It might be a material more amenable for antiquing barrel beads, too.

In conclusion...I tried the amber shellac on a mammoth and one that I think is bone. Did 2 applications on each. Very little difference from tea/iodine. And neither really came close to a couple of my guns with original beads. That said..any suggestions that make a snow white bead match the gun better as far as "vintage look" is concerned..is probably suitable...

Here is a mammoth bead on a Win 21. 4 hrs in a 50/50 mix of Iodine and very dark earl grey tea, whole bag into a tablespoon of hot water. Not real happy with outcome but sure looks better than snow white.

That's about what my experiments yielded. Like you say..Better than snow white..