Okay,
I should say at the outset that my intention was to create a set of ivory chips and do it in the traditional scrimshaw manner by hand. Here are some photos with notes along the way.
Tools:
At the top are two of the traditional type tools I tried, a scribing knife and an exacto knife. They both had pluses and minuses but I settled on the exacto knife as the scriibing tool was too thick.
The blank stock
This is the blank stock. It is 1 1/2" in diameter and it is a cast polyester resin with additional compunds to simulate ivory. It is impossible to tell in any of these photos but it really polishes up beautifully.
Cut and Unpolished balnks
From here the chips were wet sanded (600-15000) and then polished on a cloth wheel.
A cutting error.
Cut very slowly
Some practice chips.
You can see on the last one where I slipped with the knife. You have to apply a lot of pressure and it is very easy to slip. Not a good feeling after cutting, polishing and almost finished scrimming. These look rough because I subjected them to some wear tests but the uncut polished chips look great.
Paint
This is an unpolished painted chip. I haven't tried polishing it yet but the paint really soaks in. You can't paint the polished chips.
Chewed Chip
This chip was attempted with the dremel tip from above. The tip is very small but still chewed up the chip. Engravers use airtools similar to what your dentist uses that spin a finer tip at 400 000 rpms. I haven't tried one, they are not cheap.
That's just off the top of my head, it's been a while since I worked on this project.
And yes I can see my poker table needs to be cleaned
