I want to incorporate a shell laminate in a project, and am wondering what the best laminate product is? I have done inlay work on instruments with real shell, and 'processed' products. Some of it does not look natural.

I am looking for a good natural look, and something that is bendable. I am very familiar with bending wood on a bending iron, so I might pick up bending laminate without too much difficulty.

I have been on the Aqua Blue website, and their shell looks good.

I like the look of natural Paua, Green Abalone, Red Abalone, Awabi, Black MOP, and blue Paua.



Thoughts?

I have had good luck with Max Flex. However, it may not be as simple as it seems. A while ago Mudhole had two different methods of applying it in videos, hot water and heating gun, others I'm not sure. What worked for me was to heat the product in very hot water, waiting until the stain from the water has gone most of the way across the back of the product, then quickly apply it, pressing it down vigorously as you wrap it around the blank. Then compress it with a complete thread wrap or, with isolation provided by the paper that labels comes on wrapped tightly with electrical tape. Leave it on overnight.

The hot gun approach yielded cracks. It may be that I didn't get it hot enough, but I do know that the water method worked well for me. It amazes me that the adhesive works as well as it does after hot water immersion.

Not sure how it is with shell laminates, yet... but, when bending hard woods like Cocobolo, other Rosewoods, highly figured Koa, Mahogany, etc, at 1.8mm thick, a lot of heat is required. The bend is from the inside of the radius compressing, not the outside of the radius stretching. I wonder how it is with the laminate? When I started bending wood, I used a heat gun, and heated from the outside. I had a lot more breakage then. Now I rarely ruin a piece.

Looking forward to seeing how the shell laminates bend.

Thank you for sharing the tips.

I may check out the Max Flex.

Any users of the Aqua Blue laminate?

The standard Aqua Blue laminate is good for larger diameter blanks - like offshore rods. I have had the most success (least cracking) by heating the shell in a sealed container of water and heating in a microwave
then applying very rapidly.

They will do a thinner version on request, but I believe they require an minimum order of 50 sheets for for the thinlam version - heating in water also works best for me, but much less cracking.

I have not been satisfied with the the heatgun method.

They offer the same shell colors and patterns for both standard and thinlam.

Both look GREAT when applied.

Anglers Envy sells individual sheets of the Flex Pearl. (the other version made by Aqua Blue)