Thread: Tortoise shell
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Old 08-10-2012, 06:15 PM
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devellis devellis is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Macco View Post
This is the 2nd thread I’ve seen today on tortoise shell. Makes me wonder.

I have four tortoise shells sitting on my outside window sills on the deck. I find them in the woods behind my house. By the time I find them, they’re all washed and bleached out from the sun. I assume they’re of no use now for guitar picks. The material is becoming quite soft and brittle
I believe they were never of any use for guitar picks. It's the hawksbill turtle whose shell has the necessary properties for making stuff. The shell material has to be compressed under heat and moisture to form workable sheets. Not every turtle/tortoise shell will bond to itself in a way that forms continuous sheets of material with the properties we associate with "tortoise shell."
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