Question re: Mammoth Ivory

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Synov said:
Schreger lines may not be visible depending on the angle of the cut.

Edit: whoops should have read the rest of the thread before commenting. Here is my blue mammoth tusk Hossom to justify this post:

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In the light colored area right by the ricasso the Schreger lines are clearly visible and clearly mammoth. If you look closely they are visible over much of the scale.

scorpnsnake said:
WH's got your back Amigo. Grab me one too if you don't mind! lol

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What a grail knife for a geology/paleontology/astronomy buff like me!

gadunz said:
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Just one...give me just one of those.
 
lambertiana said:
In the light colored area right by the ricasso the Schreger lines are clearly visible and clearly mammoth. If you look closely they are visible over much of the scale.



What a grail knife for a geology/paleontology/astronomy buff like me!



Just one...give me just one of those.
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Yes, I'm not saying they aren't visible on my knife, but they may not be visible on others. Mine is clearly crosscut and they are visible all over. If the cross-cut is not visible you won't see the lines.
 
Synov said:
Yes, I'm not saying they aren't visible on my knife, but they may not be visible on others. Mine is clearly crosscut and they are visible all over. If the cross-cut is not visible you won't see the lines.
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Sorry, I misinterpreted your statement that Schreger lines might not be visible and that your knife was being submitted to justify the post to mean that your knife was one in which the Schreger lines weren't visible. I guess I am too left brained and view things in a linear fashion.
 
Gentlemen (and gentle womenfolk, of course),

In the interest of retaining a supply of ivory variations for our unrivaled knife handles, the time has come, I SAY, the TIME has COME, to venture out to your local concert halls, the homes of your local patricians, museums, instrument dealers, auction houses... and HARVEST that very material from their bourgoise historic Steinways, Bösendorfers, Yamahas, and similar assorted noise makers. To PROVIDE our beloved knifemakers with that essential material we crave.

Thank you, that is all.
 
TC said:
Gentlemen (and gentle womenfolk, of course),

In the interest of retaining a supply of ivory variations for our unrivaled knife handles, the time has come, I SAY, the TIME has COME, to venture out to your local concert halls, the homes of your local patricians, museums, instrument dealers, auction houses... and HARVEST that very material from their bourgoise historic Steinways, Bösendorfers, Yamahas, and similar assorted noise makers. To PROVIDE our beloved knifemakers with that essential material we crave.

Thank you, that is all.
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Here, here my good man. Thou speaketh sooth!
 
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TC said:
Gentlemen (and gentle womenfolk, of course),

In the interest of retaining a supply of ivory variations for our unrivaled knife handles, the time has come, I SAY, the TIME has COME, to venture out to your local concert halls, the homes of your local patricians, museums, instrument dealers, auction houses... and HARVEST that very material from their bourgoise historic Steinways, Bösendorfers, Yamahas, and similar assorted noise makers. To PROVIDE our beloved knifemakers with that essential material we crave.

Thank you, that is all.
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WValtakis WValtakis has done some handle onlay work with recycled piano keys.
 
ErikMB said:
Why is this such a popular and exotic material for knife scales? I don't mean the fancy, gorgeous teeth, but just plain ivory.

I keep thinking we'll run out, someday, and regret it.

Are there laws about elephant ivory that do not apply to mammoths or something?
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I’d be more worried about the tons upon tons of mammoth ivory sitting in goldfields rotting to nothing, rather than the little bit being used here and there for knife handles.
 
Centermass said:
WValtakis WValtakis has done some handle onlay work with recycled piano keys.
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My daughter had an old piano that was beyond rebuild, and I harvested the ivory keys.

Historically, piano keys were made from African elephant ivory. Billiard balls were made from Asian elephant ivory. One company alone used the tusks of over 1100 elephants per year to make billiard balls, typically five balls per tusk.

Ivory Billiard Balls

ocean.si.edu ocean.si.edu

Huge numbers of tusks were used for piano keys. Piano key ivory veneers are quite thin and they typically got 45 keyboards from each tusk. Since they are so thin they would only be good for small knives or as a veneer on top of some other material. One company in CT that made a lot of piano keys, among other things, imported hundreds of thousands of tusks 1840-1940.

 
Fixall said:
I’d be more worried about the tons upon tons of mammoth ivory sitting in goldfields rotting to nothing, rather than the little bit being used here and there for knife handles.
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That's a good point.
 
Metaphorically rotting I take it? Definitely not ACTUALLY rotting, it's fossilized for the most part. Although the guy I am thinking of blasts water jets into the hills and cliffs and tundra and occasionally gets them de-permafrosted in good enough shape that there are accounts of the meat being edible.

I'm surprised we haven't seen this as a special on the Peter Luger's menu.

This has been going on for over a century, and there are places up there that haven't seen a human footprint since the last ice age.


In any case, it's just "stuff" - humans are weird creatures, why we should value shiny soft metals, spend 3 months salary on a nondescript tiny shiny rock for the woman we love, and the million other things we assign value to is wonderfully weird.

FWIW I have spent the last few months hunting down a specific type of ancient Greek coin (Corinthian silver Staters) so I'm not putting myself above it all.

There are going to be some nice knives up for sale soon to cover my dumb ass multiple bids on a bunch of these coins. They are gorgeous though.

https://imgur.com/a/4lye27W
 
ElementalBreakdown said:
spend 3 months salary on a nondescript tiny shiny rock for the woman we love,
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Well, as you put it, “love” is involved. It drives us, as a species, to find rare, precious and beautiful things because we love those things or we love the person we gift them to.

Bravo for the human spirit.

Let’s not overthink this.
 
ElementalBreakdown said:
Metaphorically rotting I take it? Definitely not ACTUALLY rotting, it's fossilized for the most part. Although the guy I am thinking of blasts water jets into the hills and cliffs and tundra and occasionally gets them de-permafrosted in good enough shape that there are accounts of the meat being edible.

I'm surprised we haven't seen this as a special on the Peter Luger's menu.

This has been going on for over a century, and there are places up there that haven't seen a human footprint since the last ice age.


In any case, it's just "stuff" - humans are weird creatures, why we should value shiny soft metals, spend 3 months salary on a nondescript tiny shiny rock for the woman we love, and the million other things we assign value to is wonderfully weird.

FWIW I have spent the last few months hunting down a specific type of ancient Greek coin (Corinthian silver Staters) so I'm not putting myself above it all.

There are going to be some nice knives up for sale soon to cover my dumb ass multiple bids on a bunch of these coins. They are gorgeous though.

https://imgur.com/a/4lye27W
Click to expand...

In many cases actually rotting, not just metaphorically. A lot of the mammoth ivory in permafrost is not fossilized in the sense of mineral replacement. It frequently has mineral staining in the bark, but that is not the same thing as mineralization.
 
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