Keris with elephant-headed blade.

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

As I said Detlef, my comment was not my advice, it was advice given to me a long time ago by a lead conservator who had an extremely impressive resume. This man was heavily relied upon by a couple of major museums.

I have never tried linseed oil on ivory.

Looking at your hilt that has come together I might give it a try on something unimportant, I've got a lot of ivory, I can probably find something with a crack that I'd be prepared to try it on.

Tell me, was your linseed oil boiled oil or raw oil?

Did you demount the hilt before soaking?

If you demounted, did you clean out the tang hole & tang before remounting?

Hello Alan,

The linseed oil I used was cold pressed, not boiled. The hilt wasn't demount, I had noticed that the crack before became bigger and I got the impression that I needed to do something. Frankly said, it was the first and only time that I used this method on ivory. This is now some years ago.

Regards,
Detlef