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Looking to make some very large inlay designs in ivory. The fake stuff, of course. What do people use for this? In India they use "celluliod" and in my opinion it looks good and ages quite similarly to ivory. Perhaps I could use pick guard blanks? Does anyone have any thoughts on ivory alternatives especially in large sizes? Pick guard blanks at 12x18 run around $20 — seems pricy for cheap thin plastic. The more DIY/found/scavenged the better!!!

for authentic looking faux ivory .. try masecraftsupply.com - i bought some samples of recon stone there a couple years ago, adn they sent some other samples, one of which was faux ivory - it looked pretty good to me ... even had some fault lines ...

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

find some piano keys
look on some freebies page

I second Masecraft. I've bought a lot of stuff from Chris and the guys. Mostly recon. Watch out for the celluloid, just in case you don't know... it is very flammable. I do a lot of inlay work for a builder nearby and we've watched some pickguards spontaneously combust while being cut and a trapezoid inlay burn from just being near a heat source.

For big, cheap pieces... there was a guy on Ebay selling some stuff a while back. az*polyproducts2007 I think. Not super duper realistic, but It was a soft poly product that was cheap and really easy to work. He gave me a whole bag of samples that had bubbles to use for practice and testing.

Otherwise I use Warther ivory with full certificates, if the client requests. I've got a box of Mammoth too. Mostly from the Russians off Ebay years ago.

Cheers,
Athena

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http://www.AthenaInlay.com

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