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Ivory...can yellowed ivory be restored back to white?

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#21 ·
If you can pull the grips and look inside you'll get a lot of firsthand info about the yellowing and if it is just outside coloring or if the yellow is through and through.

If they were mine..and I wanted white. The'd come the gun and go into the sink with warm water and a toothbrush full of normal toothpaste. After a good scrubbing I'd know if I had yellow ivory or stained ivory. Might even get on them with some very fine grit 800+ wet and dry. But you'll lose the high polish if you do. Not like you will hurt them as long as you don't get aggressive and start sanding off the ivory. Watch the corners and edges for sue. One caveat though, if the spacer block isn't glued well or from anything that isn't hard wood you risk having the grips come apart. But that can be negated but using little water and keeping the center piece as dry as possible.
 
Discussion starter · #23 · (Edited)
COKid said:
Is that what it's called? I've been wondering every time I look in a mirror.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand, I'm not sure you can ever get it back to what it was as new. Ivory yellows. It's what it does. I think the current look is absolutely gorgeous by the way. I think the only way you're going to keep it pearly white is if you replace them with a current ivory knock off like pvc.
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I'm thinking what I might do is just leave these ivory grips alone, or perhaps try toothpaste and see what that does (Cosmo, what brand of toothpaste do you recommend for this?) but ultimately I may need to just get a set of some sort of fake ivory grips of some kind of synthetic bright white plastic or whatever, and put them on another SAA...

Any recommendations for a set of one piece grips of a bright, uniform, pure white color that will tend to stay white? i.e., a plastic or other material that is so bright and so evenly white with so little variation and so little visible grain that it "looks like a piece of ivory that looks like a piece of plastic"...if that makes any sense? ;)
 
#24 ·
Cozmo said:
Tom? There is a difference between mammoth, aged yellow ivory and "new" elephant ivory that has yellowed. Mosty "new" ivory isn't yellowed very deep. It is just surface satin, liked coffee-stained human teeth, not human teeth that turned brown from Chemo or taken on the soil and water stains of a 10K year old mammoth tusk.

I have intentionally tea stained new ivory many times. And taken the color/stain/yellow off with anything from wet and dry 600 grit, or steel wool, or just common tooth paste. Tooth paste being the easiest and from what I have found the best to use cleaning ivory. Makes some sense when you think about what you are cleaning and how it got "yellow', texture and grain and or internal ivory changes (absorbing mineral color) you aren't likely to take out ever.
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I hear you , the mammoth has a creamy color with start . They started much lighter and did yellow up in a matter of time from use . Maybe it's a porous difference thing but I would have to go fairly deep to get these back to starting color. I like the yellowed look myself .
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#25 ·
It oxidizes like most things when exposed to air. Cut open an old pair and see if the inside is not white. The yellow color is the more desirable. Iis nice while white but it will not stay that way forever.
 
#26 ·
charlene said:
I'm thinking what might do is just leave these ivory grips alone, or perhaps try toothpaste and see what that does (Cosmo, what brand of toothpaste do you recommend for this?) but ultimately I may need to just get a set of some sort of fake ivory grips of some kind of synthetic bright white plastic or whatever, and put them on another SAA...

Any recommendations for a set of one piece grips of a bright, uniform, pure white color that will tend to stay white? i.e., a plastic or other material that is so bright and so evenly white with so little variation and so little visible grain that it "looks like a piece of ivory that looks like a piece of plastic"...if that makes any sense? ;)
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That made sense o_O . You have a fine product as is though .(y)
 
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#27 ·
Agarbers said:
My fear is that if you try to turn them back white again bad things will happen during the process.
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That's why I did just did a short Show and Tell instead of any recommendation .
 
#28 ·
charlene said:
I'm thinking what might do is just leave these ivory grips alone, or perhaps try toothpaste and see what that does (Cosmo, what brand of toothpaste do you recommend for this?) but ultimately I may need to just get a set of some sort of fake ivory grips of some kind of synthetic bright white plastic or whatever, and put them on another SAA...

Any recommendations for a set of one piece grips of a bright, uniform, pure white color that will tend to stay white? i.e., a plastic or other material that is so bright and so evenly white with so little variation and so little visible grain that it "looks like a piece of ivory that looks like a piece of plastic"...if that makes any sense? ;)
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These came on my cimarron. They've stayed bright white for almost 4 years now.
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#29 ·
#31 ·
MarkInTx said:
If you want the ivory variation AND the bright white color...the Resin-S+ stuff might be what you want.
I tried to stain mine just to get a little more aged look...coffee, tea, wood stain (oil and water based) and nothing took.
Resin-Ivory™ Gun Grip Blanks 1911 and SAA (guitarpartsandmore.com)

View attachment 801204
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If u can find some potassium permangenate it will age the ivory or u can find one of the dealers that deal w/muzzle loading products,they have bottles of aging compound specially designed for bone,horn & ivory that will do the job.
 
#32 · (Edited)
As Marks says Resin-s for white is a given. And he's right, nothing will age the color past being bright white. Any generic toothpaste will work to clean up ivory, if it can be cleaned. I have used "Crest Complete" and the A&H baking soda version, both to good effect.

I own may be 3 dozen pair of ivory? Have owned double that at one time or another. The oldest that I have right now might be from 1904. Likely not that old though. It has some color and grain but still mostly white. A couple other pair are similar. Only one actually going "yellow" in all my ivory. And they were only fitted in the last couple of years. One pair came from the same mammoth tusk as Tom's yellowing pair above. Still white as a baby's ass pretty much, except for slight mineral staining. But they haven't changed in color from the blanks Tom cut to now, 2 or 3 years later. That said most of my guns/grips have been out of the light and in gun rugs since I've owned them. And they don't get handled a lot these days.

I have stained more white ivory to make it yellow/brown to looked aged than I can count. And a majority of the time, then ended up cleaning it with tooth paste to get it back to color I find acceptable again or just to get it to high light a carving. Ivory is a tough material and fun to work with. Don't be afraid of trying something with ivory. As long as you aren't cutting it.

Pictured from top to bottom:
Colt with my "yellowing" ivory
Uberti with Resin-S imitation
Colt with Tom's mammoth ivory (bright white!)
1904 Colt with old ivory (but likely not ivory from 1904)

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This is ivory that was white.
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stained now with tea to highlight the carving by Dennis Holland.
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#34 ·
It worth remembering that there are several types of Ivory and elephant Ivory can come from different parts of the tusk. I suspect this will have an impact on the Ivory yellowing.
 
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#35 ·
Heck ya . Some elephant I've seen here has pretty wild grain as well . When used , I often wonder if the cut angle , ever so slight make a difference in the absorption of oils .
 
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#39 ·
beemermark said:
As an aside can anyone tell me how to make my 71 year old back feel new again? Toothpaste?
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I'm thinking of trying inversion. I turn 40 in 2 months but almost 20 years of wearing a duty belt and a couple of neck injuries make me think a couple of discs in there are about 80. Finally found a store that let me test out one of those teeter hangups for about 5 minutes. Cracked my neck so hard after those 5 minutes that the entire store heard it, I could actually taste it, and it relieved a shoulder kink I'd had for 3 weeks.
 
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