Antiquing Ivory Grips

peddler

Anyone ever try to make ivory grips look old or antique looking? Would like to make these have the lines like the very old ivory grips have. These grips are already about 30-40 years old but have never been on a gun or out in the air, sun light, etc. and never been handled very much. Thanks for any information.

peddler

I have got the color I wanted but not the lines. I soaked grips in strong tea for about 24 hours.

RCrosby

Ron Packard, knifemaker, suggests fatback for bringing out color but age is the only thing I know of that will give you the cracks. There either there, or you wait a LONG time.

Sorry about the earlier mis-spelling of Ron's last name.
Great guy. Great knives!

babun

In your First post about this ivory, I linked to two sites and asked you to read them. Did you???

this is a quote from one of them....

"""3. A method used to replicate the slight cracking that occurs sometimes with old ivory is to place it alternately in a furnace and a freezer so that the alternate heating and freezing causes the surface to crack."""

perry shooter

Cracks like the ones That are in Forgemonkeys picture are refered to as BARK Because they are normally found on the outer edges of a TUSK. Very small cracks show up with age normally cross grain But Be aware any attempt to age grips by combination of Heat then freezing may let you end up with 10 piece Grips. instead of two piece one left and one right side [V][:(!][xx(][:(] when one pays north of $400.00 for an oversize pair of grip blanks that are oversize to allow for Fitting to your frame
I would be very careful before trying to make them produce cracks.

peddler

Thanks to all for the information, grips may be too expensive to try and make them crack, [:(]

v35

I bought some SAA smooth ivory grips someone screwed up with tea.
Fortunately, the stain was superficial and scraped off easily.