The best ivory I ever bought

Mark Knapp

Mark Knapp

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I know everyone likes to see nice ivory so here are two tusks I just bought, the intact cow tusk is sold, it is 7 1/2 feet long. The other tusk was a broken bull tusk 6 1/2 feet long and 70 pounds, I was so pleased at what I found when I blocked it up, I had to post a picture. It just came out of the ground and is soaking wet so it will be a while before any of it will be dry enough for sale. For now we get to just look at it. The blocks are 5 1/2 inches long and 4 to 5 inches in diameter. I can see there will be a fair amount of blue on it. I just love good material.

ivory001-1.jpg

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Great score, Mark! Looks like there will be some really nice pieces in there.
 
Those would be absolutely amazing to see and handle in person. Wow.

Thanks for sharing the pictures. I look at your offerings even though I have no use only desire.
 
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With ivory fresh out of the ground like this, how long will it take to dry. I see you blocked it up. I am assuming that is to speed up the drying and to see what you have. Are there other precautions you have to take when drying the ivory? Is it similar to drying wood? Just curious.

Looks like you really scored on these pieces. Did you have to go find these for sale? Or do people know you buy ivory and come to you?
 
Burl Source said:
With ivory fresh out of the ground like this, how long will it take to dry.
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It may take up to a year or longer. Depends on how wet it is, how dense it is and how big the piece is. It's better to stabilize it right after you cut it(after a year of drying). I witnessed endless times how it cracks after the piece is fully finished and spent a week at customers house. PITA to fix it. You never know how the certain piece will behave. It's a lottery.
Some pieces dug from the sands are so well preserved that they are better than elephant ivory. But this is a very rare case.
Most of the mammoth ivory comes form river banks of permafrost. Wich means they are pretty well damaged.
Just my 2 cents.

PS. It likes to delaminate and crack when drying...:(
 
i don't have experience with mammoth ivory, but i know for sure elephant ivory is much less likely to crack and de-laminate if it's in small slabs.
the smaller the pieces, the more intact it will remain during the curing process.
full tusk segments can be very susceptible to something as minor as temperature fluctuations, so i cut my ivory into scales as soon as i get it.
again, this might not be relevant to wet mammoth ivory - just my observations and experiences with elephant ivory.
great looking stuff!
i look forward to seeing this available for sale.
:)
 
Burl Source said:
With ivory fresh out of the ground like this, how long will it take to dry. I see you blocked it up. I am assuming that is to speed up the drying and to see what you have. Are there other precautions you have to take when drying the ivory? Is it similar to drying wood? Just curious.

Looks like you really scored on these pieces. Did you have to go find these for sale? Or do people know you buy ivory and come to you?
Click to expand...

I blocked it up for two reasons, first, I just couldn't wait to see what was in there. But mostly to to start it drying. just after I took the pictures, I started cutting the tusk sections up into scales and hidden tang blocks. It is important to do it right away so that they don't crack as they dry. Obviously they dry quicker when they are cut into smaller pieces but more importantly, if let to dry in the whole tusk or tusk sections they will crack up into almost unusable condition. They crack in the concentric rings, we call it "ringing out"

I go on buying trips but mostly what I am trying to do is gain enough trust with native people so that they will send the stuff to me, they have not been treated fairly by buyers at times so it is a very hard thing to overcome. These last two were sent to me by new people so I must be doing something right.
 
John White said:
Whooo...look at those chocolate sections! I'll be looking forward, Mark!

John
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Sorry John, the chocolate colored pieces already have too many cracks to make them usefull for larger pieces, the best I will be able to do with those is make folder scales. It's a real bummer, but the best colors are always closest to the rotten parts, and in most cases have already begun to rot. That's why you almost never get real good color with no rot or cracks, makes them real special, as you know.
 
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I got a lot more yield out of this piece than what is normal so I should be able to sell it at a reasonable price, I will be checking it with a moisture meter, and sell it when it is ready. I will loose some to cracking in the mean time so it is hard to predict what the price may be. stay tuned.
 
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