What will we do?

Keith Montgomery

Keith Montgomery

Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
29,205
What material do you think is going to be able to replace ancient ivory on mid priced knives?

Really nice pieces of walrus ivory can now cost almost as much as it used to cost to for nice hunter with a walrus ivory handle. Mammoth ivory has doubled in price in the last year. It is getting to the point where it won't be long before these materials will only be able to be used on high end knives.

Ancient ivory is my favorite material, but I'm not sure that I am going to be able to afford it in the not too distant future.
 
Keith, you should take a trip up to Alaska and get yourself a stockpile some of which you can send to guys so they can make you knives with it.
 
What will we do?
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I know what I will do, I will buy every knife with mammoth ivory I can lay my hands on (And of course - which I like). I'm also on the lookout for the raw materials, so I can provide knifemakers with the stuff if it's getting really scarce/expensive.

As for a replacememnt - I guess for me it'll have to be stag. Not really fond of dyed bone.

Kind regards,

Jos
 
Good quality Stag is always a good alternative in any price range.

At the risk of starting yet another seemingly endless giraffe bone bashing session, it's another good alternative as long as it's natural or tastefully dyed. It's stable and when tastefully dyed can look very much like ivory.

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Has mammoth doubled in price in 12 months? I was shopping for it at Blade so knew it had creped up, but didn't notice anything that drastic? The BEST stuff of course has never been cheap.
 
I'm also looking at stockpiling my own supply of ivory. Even though prices have increased dramatically over the last couple of years, I think they are just going to keep going up.
 
T-Rex molars???

Did I win? ;)

I personally think the use of the rare materials (mammoth ivory) has been taken for granted, by a greed driven market. Like being offered $1.00 gas, consumed in vast amounts, it has become "knife pop-culture" and gotten into every corner, even production knives, Case, AGRussell, etc... limited edition runs of 500 pieces.. but where does it lead eventually? ..shortages. Finally.

There is something special about the fossil ivory materials, and should be thought of it as such. Not commonplace.. maybe it is laying all over the Siberian beaches???, don't know. But, like diamonds, now it is driven by a greedy market. Things will eventually get harder to find, ..like oil.

Does it belong, in its glorious place in history, remembered more as a knife handle material, than on a wooly mammoth? I've seen some of these tusks, and they are amazing! What do we do when we chop them into bits for a 4" scale?

Maybe someone will start maketing stabilized Chickfila chicken bones and put 100000000 of these to use someday. :)
This kinda reminds me of the maker last week asking, "what do i do if i run out of iron?" .. except that won't happen. Ever.

One final thought, unrelated maybe: You can spend your whole day at the beach looking for seashells and miss the ocean. The waves, the air, the feel of it. In searching for some great treasure, you can miss the experience.
David
 
I am all for giving G bone another look. I like to work with it and you can still get a good set of scales for 60$. No it will never replace ancient ivory. But it could help keep the coast down on your next custom hunter. Think about it and place an order with your favorite maker today.
 
Keith Montgomery said:
I'm also looking at stockpiling my own supply of ivory. Even though prices have increased dramatically over the last couple of years, I think they are just going to keep going up.
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That's probably wise Keith. For the novice following your lead, I would just caution them to know what they are buying and select carefully.
 
Kevin Jones said:
That's probably wise Keith. For the novice following your lead, I would just caution them to know what they are buying and select carefully.
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I agree. It is best to purchase ivory that you check out yourself before making the purchase. If you can't do that, then find suppliers that you can trust. I have four people that I have worked with in the past that I trust will only send me top quality ivory.
 
I think for some fancier knives where scales will work, I just might give white MOP a shot. I was recently told by one supplier that he is about to get a supply of large MOP scales, large enough to use on good sized knives, for very reasonable prices.
 
2knife/David- liked your post.:thumbup: Keep up the good work.
 
Kevin Jones said:
Good quality Stag is always a good alternative in any price range.

At the risk of starting yet another seemingly endless giraffe bone bashing session, it's another good alternative as long as it's natural or tastefully dyed. It's stable and when tastefully dyed can look very much like ivory.

spbowiedif4.jpg

2927_4_b.jpg


Has mammoth doubled in price in 12 months? I was shopping for it at Blade so knew it had creped up, but didn't notice anything that drastic? The BEST stuff of course has never been cheap.
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very nice Kevin. Never got why people do not like Giraffe bone . I ve been to Africa a few times and there's lots of Giraffe's with bones
 
Walruses are plentiful so the supply is resplenished, though it might slow down. Mastodon is a different matter entirely. It's difficult to justify putting $200 scales on a $1,500 knife, whereas I think it's an easy decision on a $2,000+ knife.

If current trends continue, it seems that wood & stag will replace ivory on mid priced knives - not g. bone. Premium wood (i.e., desert ironwood) and stag prices are getting close to the ivory price a few years back.

What I would enjoy seeing, what I hope will happen, is that makers will compensate cheaper materials with more intricate handle construction. I think that some aspect of handle embellishment is well explored (e.g., frames), others are not (multi facetted profiles, inlays, pins, etc). I think engraving is making a big come-back too.

For example, it should be relatively easy to jazz up a mid sized bowie with blackwood handles by the use of a more sophisticated handle profile and some precious inlay (e.g., 1/10th ounce 24k gold).

To be fair to the makers, one key thing that is slowing down design innovation is that collectors are rather conservative.
 
I was told by a couple of guys that Chinese suppliers are theone that have been offering ridiculous prices for the fossil ivory. I'm kinda kicking myslef for not buying at least one nice piece of wlarus at the Guild Show. This is a problem for someone like me because the prices on any premium handle material, but it ivory, stag or ironwood have been going up and it is a bit harder for a newbie like me to pass that on to the customer. I have 5 sets of small blue and green mammoth bark scales that i got from the Don Hanson Museum of Practical Paleontology that will be great for something like a small gents EDC, but even at Don's reasonable price, I can't justify using them until I learn to make damascus.
 
Chuck Gedraitis Knives said:
Keith, you should start collecting folders, you only need small pieces of ivory for scales.
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That is true. Even fairly small fixed blades, such as chute knives, need pieces 5" X 1 5/8" X 1/4". Nice pieces of mammoth that size are now well over $200.00, and I have seen them at more than double that price.

Joss, I am referring to ancient walrus. Modern walrus is a big problem for me. I import most of my knives, and modern walrus is illegal for me to import into Canada. It is even more of a problem than importing elephant ivory. If elephant ivory is accompanied by the proper CITES documents, it is legal to import it, but that is not the case with modern walrus.
 
I love pearl and would love to see more of it. Mammoth ivory is so appealing to me because of the color first, and the fact that its from a historic animal second. I will not be able to replace that with G bone. I am all for G bone on using knives because of its dense properties.
 
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