Ivory inlay

[rogerpjr]

I am planning on installing a small oval ivory inlay with her initials on the new rifle I am building my daughter. What would be the best method for attaching it, just epoxy or pinning it in place? Or some other method?

[JTR]

Traditionally, for longrifles, inlays were held in place with small iron or sometimes silver nails. Now days a small dab of glue might help to hold it in place long term.
But again, traditionally, ivory wasn't generally used on longrifles. A polished piece of bone would look more at home.
John

[okieboy]

 If it isn't mammoth ivory, the laws about ivory are getting very fussy and will only get more restrictive as time goes by. Irregardless of how good a material ivory may be for a craftsman or when it was taken (documents required),it is.
 Bone or one of the synthetic ivories would be a better choice; personally I would suggest a silver inlay.

[David Rase]

What John said. 
David

[Robby]

Bone or ivory, you might consider making a brass bezel to hold it and fasten that assembly in a traditional method.
Robin

[rogerpjr]

Funny, after I read the post about bone I went outside and saw a big piece of soup bone the dog had been gnawing on for months. He no longer has it. No sense wasting a limited supply of legal ivory pieces even though they are pretty small scraps. Dog now has a nice pork shoulder blade from the pork butt we made pulled pork sandwiches from for dinner. My guess is he'll lose some of that bone too.

Anyway, can't use a bezel as the inlay will be on the beavertail cheek piece so it will have to be really smooth.

[dogcatcher]

I have used white bone knife scales as an ivory substitute.  I inlay it and then pin it with small brass rod.  You can get the knife scales from eBay and knife suppliers.  They come in various sizes, but I used 1x3x1/8.  I cut to shape with a jeweler's saw, dig out the inlay area, mix my epoxy, clamp the piece of bone in place.  Next day drill holes for 3/32 brad rod, epoxy them in place, next day clip off the excess and file and then sand everything even.

[L Moler]

I would recommend that with either ivory or bone, that you put epoxy behind it more to stabilize the wood than to hold the inlay.  In addition, you can also secure the inlay with small brads..

I have done several hunter stars on the cheekpiece using ivory and ebony.  I always used epoxy to hold these inlays in.  (I have seen way to many antique European guns with parts of the inlays missing while using animal glue.)

[JCKelly]

If you do use ivory, some unscrupulous person would probably suggest you call it "bone" if you ever decide to sell it.