Does anyone have a source for the grained alternative ivory that A. Rogge uses? I find it much more convincing than the GPS stuff, but don’t know where to find it. (I like the GPS stuff for artificial horn and tortoiseshell, just not the ivory).
TIA
Bill
Bill,
Don’t do this to me!!
I’ve just spent £50 on GPS Alternative Ivory 
David
Sorry David
maybe you’ll like it better.
The GPS stuff chips easily and it’s not very convincing, but it seems to be the only thing readily available.
Bill
GPS has that stuff too… It’s Casien with a grain that looks just like real ivory and it has a kinda yellowish color to it… Contact Ann at GPS and ask for the grained casien… Cheers Seth 
It never chips on me, unless my tools are dull… 
Thanks Seth, maybe the person I spoke to before at GPS either didn’t know what I wanted, or was trying to steer me towards a particular product line.
The chipping doesn’t happen on the lathe, but later on 
Bill
I’m just learning so it’s OK. It looks fine to me but I don’t know what the good stuff looks like. I’ll maybe try this casien on the next lot. 
My first 4 attempts to turn it ended in chipping but I seem to be Ok now (famous last words).
I’ve also found when you turn a ring on a mandrel, it softens and stretches. You end up with a bigger diameter hole than initially intended.
Turning plastic seems far more difficult than wood.
David
Seth’s right about the ‘sharp tools’ bit, it helps. And in my experience you need to go real slow, that will reduce the heat buildup, softening, etc.
Also, with plastics (and ivory too) many people recommend using a ‘scraping’ cut rather than a cutting technique on the lathe - use a scraper angled “down” from the toolrest. This can make chatter worse, but it’s a common technique for dealing with materials that don’t cut like wood.
Bill
Dont try to take too deep of a cut… Make love 
to the ivory take your time… You know this if you have ever had it blow up on you before… It shatters like glass…
Hi Bill ,
Nice to have meet you in Miltown !
You can find hereby mammouth ivory(all legal) ,stones,ivory imitation…
to Jean Pierre Delaruelle
12 , rue de Feuquerolles BP2
60590 TALMONTIERS
France
Tel : +33 3 44 84 83 27
Didier
What, like ebony and rosewood you mean 
Patrick.
…sorry, I’d have to disagree about caseine…it looks nothing like real ivory and it’s just as brittle as the casp polyyster. The stiped grain effect actually looks kinda creepy to my eyes
Thanks Bill and Seth I will put your suggestions into practice.
Perhaps I’ve not got the right mindset yet but when I’m stood in front of a piece of plastic that’s spinning at 2000rpm with a chisel in my hand, lurve is the last thing on my mind.
The feeling’s more like fear
David
Ok, I’m guessing this stuff comes from more than one source.. … It is just as brittle as Imitaion Ivory…
actually rosewood is wood-like, but yer right, ebony is something else again. Actually boxwood is strange too, cuts more like butter than wood
Seriously, some wood seems to take well to ‘machining’ technique, ebony seems this way to me, whereas other wood chatters nastily without shallow shearing cuts. A nice sheared ebony shaving is not easy to achieve with a skew chisel, for instance.
Thanks a lot Didier! Nice to meet you too. My french is pretty bad, I hope M. Delaruelle’s english is better!
Bill
I hope M. Delaruelle’s english is better!
Bill[/quote]
Hi Bill,
They had the stand next to us at St Chartier. Mme speaks excellent English, and they had some very nice mammoth and imitation ivory. It is not that expensive compared to other sources, and there is no minimum quantity.
Mike