Ivory Bead

[Breck Gorman]

I won an online auction for a dozen vintage butter knives. Not something that usually interests me, but these have ivory handles.
It can easily be proved that these were made over 100 years ago and are pre - ban.
I will be using the handles to make sight beads.
Here is the kicker to the story…. I was delighted to see where they were made!

[David Noble]

Good find Breck!
Will you be producing any of the beads for direct sales? I'd be interested in a few if so. Let me know! Thanks.

[Dean Romig]

Celluloid, first used in 1869, looks just like ivory. A red hot pin will show the difference.





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[chris dawe]

Or bone ,I have a couple english made ones that are bone

[TobyBoudreau]

Hi, I've just started making a few ivory beads. I have some mammoth ivory from my time in Alaska. I'm making them to similar specification to the beads previous sold by several of the parts outlets. .0157 bead with a 0.120 shaft. I am also making ivory mid beads. 0.080 diameter with a cone shaped base. See pictures. I'm asking $30 with shipping and tax for a front bead and $25 for a mid bead. I am also open to trying to make custom sizes to your specifications. If you are interested or want to chat about them, please shoot me a message with your number and I will call you.

[Elvin Ehrhardt]

Hello Breck, I’m a new member and I’ve been told you’re the man I need to talk with about refurbishing Damascus barrels. I have a recently acquired Parker DH that was manufactured in 1893 I’m refurbishing and wanted to bring those old barrels back to their original beauty. They are in good shape with shiny bores, bell tone when hung and tapped and no major damage other than a very tiny dent on right a few inches above the forend. What does it run for such ? By the way I have another ivory source if you need more to work with. A gentleman I met some years ago in Alaska. I purchased mammoth ivory from him for use in making grips for my 1911. His website where he the ivory is: https://www.milesofalaska.com/mammoth-ivory-scales.html He has various colors of the ivory from white to blues that he stabilizes with a clear epoxy. It is a bit smelly cutting and polishing it but it turns out really nice.

[Bill Murphy]

I buy ivory and similar products from Boone Trading Company, but their beads don't have stalks. They have a variety of products though.

[Elvin Ehrhardt]

There are still a few sources out there for ivory. I've even seen it pop up on Ebay from time to time. Another source is to keep a sharp lookout for anyone junking an old piano. I've harvested a lot of old elephant ivory from piano keys. It's a bit thin for making sight beads but it works great for doing inlay work. You can tell when you delaminate the piano key covering you look at the covering at an angle and you can see the grain of the ivory almost like the grain in wood. If you see the grain pattern you've got ivory and most of that came from elephant tusks back in the day.

[Bill Murphy]

Toby, .157, not .0157, but you knew that.

[TobyBoudreau]

Breck, Yes, my error and Thank you, but they way my old eyes feel making those beads, I sometimes wonder if it isn't 0.00157. Haha.