Ivory Inlay on a Jr. Statesman

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nilsatcraft

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20051022221314_JrStatesmanIvory.jpg

20051022221336_JrStatesmanIvory2.jpg

This morning I turned this Jr. Statesman Pen. The inlay is actual Elephant Ivory from recycled piano keys. Gary Maxx was kind enough to send it to me along with some other cool blanks. Thanks Gary! :D I don't actually know what kind of wood it is. It's been in my pile of blanks for a really long time. I only had a little bit of Ivory so I wanted to make the most of it. The glue up is by no means perfect but from the front angle it looks alright.

20051022221929_JrStatesmanIvoryblank.jpg

This is what the blank looked like before turning.

Please feel free to comment. Thanks!
 
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Wow Nils....That is really neat!!. Did you use the company photographer? The pictures are great. Looks like something I might see in your catalog.

Thanks for sharing it with us.
 
Originally posted by woodscavenger
<br />I have a local goodwill with several really old pianos. How do you tell if they keys are ivory?
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Most keys, even on old pianos, are not elephant ivory. The stuff was expensive even way back when. There's a lot of great info from the government, starting with http://www.lab.fws.gov/ivory/prelim.html .
 
Thanks so much for all the comments! The photography on this pen is quite funny, actually. I literally used no lights whatsoever and I did this in our bedroom at home with my own camera. All I did was take the bottom of the curtains and attach them to a table so they created a hanging surface. I then set my camera to the Macro Mode and kept my shutter open a bit longer than normal. I was using a tripod and timed shutter release so it could take in the light. It was one of the most unprofessional photo set ups available but the pictures came out great! I have a Fuji Finepix S7000 and I love it!
 
Nils this is an awesome pen very good work on laminating, your top barrel is in 2 parts ins't it?


Originally posted by scubaman
<br />BTW some people asked about recycled piano keys. I've used those for a few years, they can be bought from people restoring pianos. I buy from http://www.walkerpiano.com/Ivory_For_Sale.htm
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Very good site Rich, but they don't send to OZ land, if not will take a dozen of it
 
In response to Richard's (Scubaman's) question- To make the design, I just cut at a 45 halfway into the blank (to about the center) and then backed out. They were cut with a bandsaw but each cut needed to be widened a bit. After each cut I glued in the ivory, cut off the excess and then cut the next side, glued, trimmed etc until I got all the way around. A coworker just pointed out that a better way to do it would be to cut from both sides, making a v-cut, then glue in the inlay and glue it back together. I could then do a v cut on the other side(s) and glue them up. That way you could use whatever thickness you want for inlays and it would always match up. Maybe I'll try some more some time with varying angles, it could be really cool.
 
Well, I can tell what my next project is. As I collect restored, and restore myself old grand pianos, I have always kept the original ivory. Now I know what I can do with it! Thank you.[;)]
 
Nils...Absolutely beautiful pen! I love the color contrast between the ivory and the wood. Now you've made me have to head out to the shop .... [:p]
 
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