Laser Engraving Ivory

[Dave Gates]

For belt buckle blanks...there are several people on Etsy selling a few designs. I have a few left over from an old job if you'd like one.

[Bill Cunningham]

Good morning all. I am new here and joined because of my gun collection and related work with gun stocks. My specific interest today is finding someone who can do laser scrimshaw on my elephant ivory grips. I have a couple of nice fine line drawings of tasteful nudes I would like to get transferred to 1911 grip panels. Thought perhaps in the time that has elapsed since this thread was started there might be some new developments. I am also interested in laser engraving wood and stabilized wood. Thank you for your advice and assistance. Ed

I did a couple of mini 1911 grips for a fella on the east coast of the same subject. A line drawing of his wife, but this was just faux ivory and had to colour fill it. But they did turn out nice from the artwork he provided. If your in Canada, and you have 'good' artwork (i.e. not low res web art) send me a PM, if they have to cross the border, 'anything' that relates to a gun or gun parts gives some lefties on the border the dry heaves, and they may vanish enroute or be delayed with lots of questions. If their real ivory, they probably can't cross the border and will be confiscated.

[Ray Mighells]

Legal ivory is available on ebay

[Chuck Stone]

Very nice, Chris .. I'm engraving that same image on faux ivory (vanilla corian) as we speak.

[Chris DeGerolamo]

How's the color of the engraved portion compare?

[Chuck Stone]

If that question was for me..
Corian doesn't generally change color when engraved. You have to pick it up
and look for a change in texture to know if it has been engraved. So .. color fill.
I've been using Scribbles paint (I think it's a fabric paint) It is made by Duncan
and I usually find it at Michael's pretty cheap. Slop it on, let it dry and then wipe
it off. You can control the color pretty well, though. Rub with a dry terry cloth
towel and you get pretty much full color. (it deepens with a finish, though) Or
you can use a damp towel to pull out more color, or you can use DNA to take
out even more color. Depends on the image. Using the DNA can give you some
leeway on saturation.. I did a bunch of cheetahs on pen barrels last week that
looked too dark, but when I rubbed it out with DNA, all of this detail popped out.
It was in the image, but hidden by too much paint.
For some images, that's fine. For the cheetah, it wasn't.

[David Somers]

Oh yeah - I forgot about "vegetable ivory" from the ivory nut tree. It's possibly just big enough for a belt buckle - maybe?

It is also called Tagua Nut. Woodturning suppliers and carving shops will carry it, among others.

Dave