An experiment that may work-- Mastadon Teeth

I bought a couple of Mastodon teeth thinking that I was just gonna bring em home, slice em up and viola-- awesome handle scales. I mean, I got them for such a great deal. I ran off after buying them and acted like Gollem-- "My Precious" LOL

So As I started to slice into them., the edges were ok, but when I hit closer to center-- BAM-- Powder!!! Then everything started crumbling. I got a couple of good pieces, but all in all it was a bust.
So I figured, what the heck-- cant mess them up any worse than what I already have-- So I put them into a container with the largest tooth in the center and then just dumped all the random pieces around it. I then took some amber resin that I have-- this stuff you can drive a truck over-- And vacuum cast and then pressure cast it.
Well, I took a small slice off of the bottom where all the "crumbs were" and polished it up-- I was pleasantly surprised. I will be slicing into the meat soon and see what happens-- Hey , worst case I will use these for something else than knife scales. I am actually pleasantly surprised!!!

It all actually held together really well!!!!

So here is the first slice--

That is going to be interesting on a knife. I'd like to seeit whe you are done.

I would look into getting some gold leaf from an art store. Use it for liner to reflect the light through the amber. Should be fabulous.

looks good, post some pics when done.

First off let me say that Randy and I went to church this morning and WOW-- what a powerful message. It brought communion to us in a way that so very much brought to light what Jesus did for us!!!! It was a vivid illustration of how Christ humbled himself for us and what he actually did. One I wont soon forget-- if ever!!!


Ok--this is picture intensive-- but here goes.
I know this stuff is strong cause Randy and Randy Jr said they wondered how it would hold up if it was dropped. So I threw a piece up into the air and it hit the concrete floor-- Nothing. I did it about 10 times and nothing. Then I took it out to the driveway and --yep-- drove over it with my car. Still nothing. This stuff cut as hard as the meteorite!!!
If there is one thing that I am going to do different, its to use a higher temperature rated resin. This polishes up well, but you have to baby it as too much heat will start to gum it up. But nothing that cant be dealt with if you know it beforehand.

I then brought it home and took some of the scrap pieces and tried something else. I dyed it!!
I used 2 methods-- one was fabric dye-- the RIT stuff-- POWERFUL!!!! I also used regular food coloring.

Those are shown as well. I did red, blue, green and yellow.
I then sanded it a bit and was pleasantly pleased. I am going to soak them in some more resin and pressure cast them again to lock everything in. You dont really need to as it will work great as is, but Im a bit anal that way.
All in all, Randy and Randy Jr. and I were really stoked. We had a great time and tried some new stuff. Our mind was going crazy with different things we are going to try.


So without further delay-- Here you go----

Clay, These look great.

I think your on to something here!!

This is the way new things develop. great job on the experiment

DUDE!! The colored pieces look cool as well!!

OK so I just wanted to show you Dog's how amazing these slices turned out!!

way cool!!!!

Very nice, and a great save of an oh no moment.
Michael

Im a fossil nut I dive for them in Florida. Heres a lil help for teef!

Mastodon, they were tree and shrub eaters, their teeth are humped, they have cusps. So it can have 4-6-8 cusps.
Mammoth, they were grass eaters, their teeth are made of Plates, teeth are flat on the top. (the blue dyed teeth are mammoth)

These teeth of both animals are made of Ivory and Enamel. The hard outter colorful polished exterior is Enamel, the "dust" or softer center is Ivory. Its very easy to see ivory because it has a tale tale hatch marked crossection.

When I find a Mastodon tooth it is normally in pieces, from enamel chunks the size of a quarter to chunks of enamel and ivory the size of a golfball to 3 inches wide and 3 inches tall, but when its SPECIAL you find the entire tooth with roots. Unless your making a 10,000 dollar knife I wouldnt cut one of those babies they are too rare, but Mammoth teeth can be imported or purchased overseas cheaper.

These are big teeth Mammoth can be over 12 inch on a mature adult and small as 3 inches on a juvinile. Mastodon are the more desired, or by me cause the cusps can be snow white, cream yellow, jet black or baby blue depending on the river or minerals it was fossilized in. Just killer stuff I love it!

Thanks for showing your works.

Steve