Mammoth ivory

Does anyone have any experience or information on adhesives and/or
fillers which have been successfully used on mammoth ivory.

A sculpture artist here in Yukon has a complete mammoth tusk which
he wants to carve. As with most mammoth tusk the surface has some
cracks which move with the changing humidity.  We have found the
ivory to be extremely hygroscope. He tried some off-the-shelf epoxy
unsuccessfully. Of course keeping a constant humidity would be the
best situation however this is simply not practical. It would seem a
suitable filler/adhesive would have to have enough elasticity to
allow the cracks to move.

It is probably not possible with this particular piece, since it has
had several years to "dry" but has anyone tried polyethylene glycol
on wet ivory? We were wondering if this would prevent some of the
cracking.

Diana Komejan
Conservator
Yukon Tourism- Heritage Branch
PO Box 2703 Whitehorse, Yukon Y1A 2M5
867-667-3431
Fax: 867-667-5377


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 14:9
                   Distributed: Friday, July 28, 2000
                        Message Id: cdl-14-9-009
                                  ***