Ivory Substitute which glue is best?

[pezzo di legno]

I am currently fitting both nut and saddle on a baroque violoncello and quite close to the glue phase - I notice the synthetic ivory nut popped off with just a dab of synthetic hyde glue (titebond) when I set it temporarily.

Anyone have any experience with the ivory from DICTUM and the best glue experience? The material appears and works like plastic of course and is nasty stuff as far as I am concerned, however I cannot afford mammoth right now.

 

I was thinking to try hyde glue tomorrow and see how the saddle works out - I just cant imagine this fake ivory to suck up and absorb much glue as would a natural wood material...... Endgrain and fake ivory perhaps seem to need something a bit more powerful?

Thanks for your help!

[Christopher Jacoby]

I have always used a small double-dab of CA, or superglue. The saddle or nut holds well, and then can be knocked back off with a light hammer and a piece of wood.

[Conor Russell]

Has anyone used 'vegetable Ivory', tagua nuts? I bought a dozen on ebay just to have a look. There seems to be no visible grain, which is a pity, but they seem easier to work than bone, which I occasionally use. Does the stuff  shrink,  and does it darken a little with age?

[pezzo di legno]

Has anyone used 'vegetable Ivory', tagua nuts? I bought a dozen on ebay just to have a look. There seems to be no visible grain, which is a pity, but they seem easier to work than bone, which I occasionally use. Does the stuff  shrink,  and does it darken a little with age?

I have read about it but never tried it. It may be more pourous and thus able to soak the glue water and hyde glue - which is the problem with synthetic ivory.  I am afraid I will have to pay for the mammoth tusk in the future - 4 more cellos are planned and I cannot stand that synthetic stuff.

 

Do have have a good source for bone material in the EU? Thanks!

[pezzo di legno]

I have always used a small double-dab of CA, or superglue. The saddle or nut holds well, and then can be knocked back off with a light hammer and a piece of wood.

This scares me a bit, superglue -  so I have tried first the hyde glue - lots of tension on the saddle so I will have to test it in setup.

[go_oa]

Has anyone used 'vegetable Ivory', tagua nuts? 

 

Some 20 years ago I made a piece of jewelry gluing a half nut to walnut.

I cannot find it for a picture.

The glue held.  The nut has yellowed a lot.

[Christopher Jacoby]

tagua ages faster than ebony, color wise. I used to carve little characters out of them as I hitchhiked around the west coast

[Conor Russell]

Thank you both.

 

I use a beef bone, well boiled and degreased, but one big one has lasted me for about twenty years.

[pezzo di legno]

Thank you both.

 

I use a beef bone, well boiled and degreased, but one big one has lasted me for about twenty years.

I pondered this idea of course - on rainy days when there is no inspiration to work, I can be found at the Polish butcher stall, where often there is free vodka. I gather actual bones would be easy of course to aquire, but seems like a messy proposition.

Is there some kind of treatment you can describe to prepare such a thing? Boiled? Dried in the sun for several summers etc? - how do you degrease?

I think I shall resort to the mammoth on sale from the Russian websites after all, but if I died I would certainly want my bones made into fittings.