Aging Ivory beads...A progress report..
 

After a couple days in a mix ..(from Dean R.) of black tea.(Earl Grey) and Iodine, there seems to be some success..I put 3 beads from various suppliers in the mix. I'm sure one was mammoth ivory. That one has darkened to a grey color that about matches my middle bead. Even the other 2 took on some color that toned down the white. I am not sure if they are ivory ?. I also put in a mid bead that has a metal sleeve..(I think it was a Marbles product)..but it stayed white as snow. My friend is dropping off some amber shellac..(per Jeff K.)..so i'll do an experiment with it too....I'm going to use the darkened one on the PH 20..I'll report about the amber shellac...

The iodine in the mix should have yielded a more amber hue. Perhaps not enough iodine in the solution?





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I made a half/half mix. I'll add more right now..

Added more iodine to original batch. Found another bead..and it's in 100% iodine..Will check tomorrow to see how it comes out..

I have antiqued revolver grips, real and the kind made of ground bone, in very strong coffee and turmeric.

I have a LeFever F that was missing the front bead but the original aged midbead was intact. I bought the NECG mammoth bead. Chucked it in a dremel and sanded it down to reasonable size. New, they are mammoth, like a marble on the end of your barrel. I swabbed it with a Qtip with Gale Locke American walnut stain until it was close to the midbead shade. If you go too far, you can swab it with denatured alcohol to lighten. Then buffed it with carnuba wax. That’s one way to do it.
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Anyone with a good method for aging them when already on the gun? I've got a couple I wouldn't mind toning down a bit but am afraid to do something stupid. I've thought of masking it off and then wrapping the bead with cotton to hold the coloring agent?

Coffee, tea, tobacco and black walnut hulls are all well known fabric dyes. Not sure how they would work on ivory. I have a wooden spoon that has taken on a yellow color after using it to stir my home made chicken noodle soup that contains a hefty amount of Turmeric. Nothing has stained that spoon in the 40+ yrs that I have used it until this. The color doesn't want to wipe off either.

.....I am doing the trials with the NEGC beads. The one in 100% iodine has turned about right . I have one more of them that I'm going to use the amber shellac on. PS..My 20 had the bead installed too...I used nail polish remover and a Q tip..after about 5 minutes of soaking..the bead came out easily..

Has anyone tried this:

https://www.dixiegunworks.com/index/...+STAIN+2+FL+OZ

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..