All right, just before I left on my hunt, I got these pictures. I wrote up a pretty extensive answer and then pushed "post reply". Apparently the server crashed at BF and nothing posted, I got a message something like, "We're sorry, server memory is full"
So, here are the pictures with my comments.
There are three different categories of tusks that we buy as mammoth ivory dealers.
The rarest are the tusks suitable for full restoration. They are complete tusks with few cracks. We don't see many of those. They are the most expensive. In full restoration we stabilize the tusk, fill all the cracks, sand and polish. Like this.
Next are the tusks suitable for making knife scales out of, it's the second rarest kind of tusk we see. They are not complete tusks, they have a few cracks but they have a lot of usable bark with some good texture and hopefully some good color.
Yours is a fine example of the third kind of tusk we see, the most common. The ones most suitable for "Rustic Restoration". Like yours, they are not complete tusks. They don't have a lot of usable bark on them and have lots of cracks. The color of yours is the most common we see, yellows and browns. These are the ones we sell as they are, dried and stabilized with CA glue.
One other thing you could consider is cross-cut scales. Cross-cut scales are becoming more popular. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of them but some people like them. They are simply 1/2 inch thick cross-cut slabs, plasticized and book-matched. Your tusk would be well suited to this use.
Just for your information, if I was to offer you a wholesale price for this tusk (and I am not, this is not a "For sale" forum, I wouldn't consider buying this tusk for that reason), it would be about $20.00 a pound. A fair retail price for it would be about twice that (in it's current form) Stabilized, it's worth about three times more than wholesale). Made into scales, it would be worth considerably more than that, but it is a lot of work to make the scales and it takes considerable effort, knowledge and equipment to do.
I wish you the best. I'm happy to answer any other questions except offers to sell it to me. I have plenty, and, on principle (because of the nature of this forum and my answer) will not buy this one.
. If not I understand and thank you for trying to help me.
