This technique is for use with hand sanding - DO NOT USE THIS WITH POWER TOOLS!! Sanding ivory for use as a scrimshaw medium requires patience, persistance and most importantly a very good dust mask! You don't want to breathe this material in! Having safety glasses is also necessary as no one wants to try to pick a piece of white material out of your eye! (it's also quite painful). Materials needed: duct tape, a flat pieAdvertisement ce of glass or plexiglass, ivory, several paper towels, 400 grit, 600 grit 800 - 1000 grit (get what you can), 1200-1500 grit, 2000 grit sandpapers (about six levels of sandpaper), polishing compound, buffer's wheel (optional) Fairs and Shows e-book. Click Here!
Take a 6" long piece of Duct Tape and fold 1/3 of it's silver side onto itself along the long edge on either side (a picture is worth a thousand words!).  You should end up with a long sticky strip of duct tape as shown in the illustration.  Fold it all the way up on both sides.
Wrap this sticky strip around your first two fingers.  This will give you a very easy way of holding onto small pieces of ivory, taguanut or other small pieces.
Sticking the ivory blank on the sticy stuff as shown, you'll find it much less fatiguing to sand. Next