Mother of Pearl Pistol Grips

[Chuck Patterson]

Has any tried to engrave on Mother of Pearl pistol grips? If so, can you share your experience?

[Mike Null]

Chuck

I have not seen MOP engraved however I have cut and inlayed abalone which is somewhat comparable. If you have a piece of scrap I would advise making several passes using 500 dpi and a 20 to 25% power. If you use too much power I think you might risk cracking it.

The stuff I cut was .050" thick.

[John Noell]

I used to engrave a lot of pearl oyster shell for the local pearl farm. You don't get much depth unless you use a lot of power and then it starts to look ugly and rough. Mechanical engraving can do much better. That said, they kept coming back and we've done thousands of shells for them. Personally, I thought the best looking was a light engraving filled with gold RubnBuff. For fine detail, use vectored lines (like the outer line in the round pendant).
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