Care of Mammoth Ivory

Thomason

Thomason

Joined
Nov 28, 2002
Messages
9,375
Holy moly! There sure are a number of opinions on the care and feeding of mammoth ivory. I read most of them.
I have a plan. First I am going to give the handle a good cleaning with rubbing alcohol, let it dry, rub it down with either lemon oil or mineral oil (not soak it in the oil), wipe off the excess and the then apply some Ren wax.
So what do think of my plan? Yea or nay or something in-between?

EDIT - Probably should posted this in "Maintenance, Tinkering & Embellishment", maybe a kind hearted moderator will move it over there.
 
Last edited:
Leave the oil off the ivory. Ivory does not contain oil naturally, and oiling it will not allow wax to adhere properly.
Use wax only. I prefer neutral paste shoe polish. It holds up better to handled items and is much cheaper than Rennaissance wax.
 
You could always just bury it in the permafrost. that seems to have worked pretty well for thousands of years.:D
 
Well, you could clean it with Ivory soap and water :)
I use a clear and odorless dish soap and water. Then I dry it well. I apply a sealer of paste wax, too.

Oil can stain and cause spots .....don't oil any ivory.
Renwax is a silicone oil in a micro-crystaline form, it can really make ugly spots on some ivory.....Don't use it on ivory.
 
Joe's suggestion seem the make the most sense. I went to Wal-Mart and they even had a sale on Permafrost. Buy one jar and get another at half price. I got a jar of Canadian permafrost and a jar of Siberian
permafrost. When not carrying the knife I will just unscrew the lid and stick it in the jar.
 
Last edited:
Just in case you are uninformed, NEVER put Canadian mammoth ivory in Siberian Permafrost. Some local collectors in Tunguska did that back in 1905 with bad results. It totally ruined the ivory.
 
Last edited:
That's why Don's super secret Fuehrerbunker like ivory vault is so deep in the ground. Gotta get it down where its easier to keep everything nice and cool even if the backup generator goes out for a while. :D
Don Hanson III said:
Permafrost works best, but like Stacy said, don't mix N match....
Click to expand...
 
Another thing you never want to do is to store your walrus tusks in the same container as your oosic....well, you can keep the female tusks in that box if you are open minded, but the male ones..........well, that's just not right.
 
NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!, don't put the oosik in with female tusks.........
Than may cause it to swell and break.
And, FYI it is now legal to store male tusks with oosik in six states. Ever since Anita Bryand, you Floridians have been a closed minded bunch.
 
jdm61 said:
That's why Don's super secret Fuehrerbunker like ivory vault is so deep in the ground. Gotta get it down where its easier to keep everything nice and cool even if the backup generator goes out for a while. :D
Click to expand...

Cold storage works great for a large stash.:D

BTW, I have no ossic. Just saying......
 
In all seriousness, though, the best way to preserve mammoth ivory is to send it to an accredited ivory storage facility, such as the one in the top drawer of my Steelcase desk.
 
Right... like we are going to store our valuable ivory in a piece of gummint contract furniture. It would probably get lost like all of that stuff in that warehouse at the end of "Raiders Of The Lost Ark."
tryppyr said:
In all seriousness, though, the best way to preserve mammoth ivory is to send it to an accredited ivory storage facility, such as the one in the top drawer of my Steelcase desk.
Click to expand...
 
I fear that if you dug all the way back into your stash, Don, you might find the Holy Grail, the Ark Of The Covenant, Jimmy Hoffa's mummified corpse,, Blackbeard's treasure and the amber room. LOL
Don Hanson III said:
Cold storage works great for a large stash.:D

BTW, I have no ossic. Just saying......
Click to expand...
 
tryppyr said:
In all seriousness, though, the best way to preserve mammoth ivory is to send it to an accredited ivory storage facility, such as the one in the top drawer of my Steelcase desk.
Click to expand...
My storage facility is accredited, certified and bomb proof. Send all highly colored, fossil ivory to me...:cool:

jdm61 said:
I fear that if you dug all the way back into your stash, Don, you might find the Holy Grail, the Ark Of The Covenant, Jimmy Hoffa's mummified corpse,, Blackbeard's treasure and the amber room. LOL
Click to expand...

That's kind of scary there, man! Maybe I'll go have a look, late one night. :eek:
 
jdm61 said:
Right... like we are going to store our valuable ivory in a piece of gummint contract furniture. It would probably get lost like all of that stuff in that warehouse at the end of "Raiders Of The Lost Ark."
Click to expand...

Hey, it was a LOCAL government desk from Harris County, TX... not some fed desk. You can trust Harris County. They'd never do you wrong!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top