Quiz - What is this material

[tryppyr]

I just got back from a minor shopping run, and found this (for $2) in an antique store in Maltby, WA. It's small (2.5 inches long, 1.5 inches wide and about 0.5 inched thick). It weighs about 1.8 ounces.

I think I know what it is, but I'm not sure. I'm fairely sure one of you will know it by sight.

- Greg

 

[Bailey Knives]

a loaf of mouldy bread?

 

[GrizzlyBear]

Really good cheese?? LOL

 

[SBuzek]

Looks like sea cow rib.
Stan

 

[SteelSlaver]

a fossilized potato!

 

[GrizzlyBear]

Also kind of reminds me of Hakarl...putrified shark meat eaten in Iceland.

 

[mete]

Potato , obviously !

 

[nate1714]

Bone of some sort. Clearly aged. Cut with a interesting knife/saw though

 

[tryppyr]

I thought bone too... but where's the marrow section?

So my next thought was fossilized ivory.

 

[Raymond Richard]

looks like walrus ivory

 

[Don Hanson III]

Ray is right, fossil walrus ivory.

 

[Mark Knapp]

Yep, Don and Ray are right, It is walrus ivory. It will make a nice spacer.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Fossil walrus , probably a juvenile tusk. Sand the cut smooth and you should be able to tell easily. You will see the tapioca center with the thin layer ivory around it.

 

[D.Mirabile]

ok I agree with you five, ... I will add that is a section of core, and it is from a male walrus........

 

[Mark Knapp]

A native lady once tried to teach me how you can tell the difference between a "carniverous walrus" and a "regular one" I never caught on. Maybe this is one of them.

 

[tryppyr]

I sanded away the coarse exterior and got down to the "tapioca" colored layer. You can alway tell when you hit biological material by the smell...

Anyway, not sure how I'll use this but for $2 I couldn't pass it up.

- Greg

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

It makes real nice spacers at the guard and butt. You can use a 1" long piece as a solid bolster between the guard and a dark wood handle, like African Blackwood.