Finishing ivories

[Richard Wagner]

Dear Stephane,

Unless the ivory you're working on is already loose, or very poorly fit in
the first place, I would suggest not ungluing it at all as you're
only making more work for yourself and creating the need to sand away more
existing ivory than is neccessary.  Everything else you mentioned, including
bleaching with Hydrogen Peroxide, UV, and sanding, may be done with the
ivories still in place.
If you do need to remove the old ivory, I second TP's suggestion.  By all
means, keep them in order.  I do this by writing the number of each one on
the back "very lightly" with a "very light" lead pencil.  This MUST be
erased when they're dry otherwise it will show through when finished.  I
suggest the "lightly" part because the writing, if done too heavily, will
become embedded into the ivory.

	Richard Wagner


On Mon, 17 May 2004, [ISO-8859-1] Stéphane Collin wrote:

> I unglue the existing ivories with a damp cloth, an iron and a sharp
> knife.  Works fine, without damaging the wood.
> I put the ivories in boiling water with detergent, to get them rid of
> glue and other dirtynesses.  Works very good, as long as you control the
> timing.