I see I haven't re-visited this thread in a while. Above there is some discussion of working methods on MOP. One big consideration is that its toxic. Its a nice way of saying the dust will kill you. Back in the 1950s my father was into polishing various semi-precious stones. I remember going to a mineral swap meet and my father trading a bunch of local fossils for a fair sized box of Abalone. His methodology was to just do the rough grinding underwater (accomplished by rigging a grinding wheel and pully above a metal box.) Its a very soft material, but tougher than we give it credit for.

I spent a lot of time in the basement watching the work. Dad would usually stop when I came down and only later did I understand why.

Another subject we should discuss is the repairs needed from time to time. One of the local dentists in Louisville does repairs that with both ivory and pearl are hard to detect. He uses modern state of the art epoxy and with some practice he can make the repairs look really good. I think the lesson from that is you should humor your dentist.

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Dick Burg