Why is ivory so popular, and how do you know it's age?

What Sarah said.

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Bob W said:
Aesthetics - the richness of color. The warm feel and look of a natural handle material. Tradition. The exclusivity of a rare and expensive material.



Well, if it's fossilized or from a long-extinct species, the age is obvious enough.
But comparing, say, 'legal' elephant ivory from the 1800s to poached ivory of today, I don't think it's possible to know. And for that reason I don't and won't own any elephant ivory.
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My view exactly. You simply don't know in many cases, and I don't want to be party to species extinction due to vanity.

Regards, Will
 
I love the material. I hope to have a Laney's clip with fossil walrus made next year. There are legal ways to get elephant ivory, but there is the legitimatacy concerns and fossil ivory was obviously not poached.

Chris
 
Just so everyone knows, there is a very definitive way to determine between the different types of ivory. See here:

http://www.fws.gov/lab/ivory_natural.php

Ivory is unique, passion and simple. Beautiful.

Interestingly enough, Bob Loveless considered ivory a "third rate handle material." I found that very interesting. And, I suppose on a working knife, it might be.
 
As a knife person and a wildlife employee for 34 years it is interesting for me to hear the opinions and desires of you all. I would suggest the scientists in the bunch go to Medicevans link and learn about all the white stuff from the animal world. Ivory can be aged by man, but natural aged ivory has a pleasant very light yellow glow that tells you it is not fresh. Scale slabs often have white on white lines that tell you it is the real thing.
Recycled ivory can look new or yellowish old. There is a session or two in game warden school on how to ID them all. Some people use the hot pin method but it is a destructive test, you don't do it on a visible surface.
I have always wanted a legal narwhal tooth but will have to wait for another life.

Why is it popular? It has a long history as a material man has tooled and crafted thru the ages. It was found as a by-product on animals we sought to harvest as food and it allowed us to work it easily into tools and totems for our use. I think some folks still feel a kinship with the material, in our cases especially as knife handles. There is an environmental concern today, much as there is in any valuable item that can be obtained by the poor for income, in most cases survival. Others not under survival situations profit from it with greed.
Ivory is popular because it is an artistic knife material, like many other beautiful and rare items, it comes from nature and has recently had attached to itself a dark shadow. No matter, it feels good in the hand, it ties us back in time to something we don't understand but feel it as something special.

You know the feeling, like throwing your leg over your first Harley, or sliding in behind the wheel of a 57'. Ivory that is correct in the law and time gives a knife the hidden but unseen feeling of a 'light saber'. Lets hope that sound management of both ancient and living animals keeps Ivory as a special material for our use. It can be done. Once again let me say, I am explaining to the OP why it may be special to knife people, I do not seek debates on politics.

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This is why. It is just beautiful to the eye and hand. This is my first experience with ivory. It just feels different. And the depth of color is just great.

 
I have purchased knife and 1911 grip sized scraps of pre-ban ivory from one particular dealer on the web for future use in making some more 1911 grips, but more importantly, finding a knife 'smith who can re-clad a few Case knives. There is absolutely no material on earth that approaches the ethereal beauty that is elephant ivory.
 
Walrus ivory is legal in Canada as the Inuit are allowed to hunt more or less traditionally. It's my favourite to work with as it has no growth rings. Very pretty surface when fine sanded.

Best regards

Robin

This one is Walrus, mammoth, with Elephant spacers from an old piano.
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Durable, natural, it ages well, and it doesn't need to be stabilized. Its nearly perfect as far as natural material quality goes.
 
pertinux said:
For me, ivory is a material that has to be experienced first-hand to really "get."

As good as modern facsimiles are (and I anticipate continued improvements), nothing compares to the Real Thing®.

It's not just ivory's appearance, but the entire tactile experience. A family friend had a set of small ivory dominoes that I was privileged to handle when I was small. The look and feel of the tiles-- their smooth coolness, their non-brittle click and clack-- haunt me to this day.(...)
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I'd recently watched an interview on TV with Billy Joel, a.k.a. "The Piano Man". This was on Charlie Rose's program on PBS, and he'd asked Billy Joel something about his preferences in pianos; what qualities in a particular piano appealed to him. In his answer, Billy Joel indicated a preference for ivory keys, and he liked it because it didn't get slick under one's fingertips when the hands were sweaty. This is something he said was missing in the modern synthetic keys made to look like ivory. I'd never even considered the reasoning behind the use of ivory in piano keys, but his explanation made a lot of sense. If that same 'slip-resistant' quality were to translate to knife handle covers, or gun grips, it would make a lot of sense there as well.

I have a couple of knives in mammoth ivory (one bark, and one interior), and there's definitely something unique about the smooth interior ivory handles. They do feel 'different' than any synthetic, or bone, and it becomes immediately apparent when it's in-hand.


David
 
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Not sure if this has been posted elsewhere, but it seems relavent to the discussion here as it appears that the US has just recently decided to ban most commercial trade of elephant ivory. I believe that Derrick (okbohn) has alluded to the fact that this was probably going to happen on a number of occasions recently. Here's an article from last week in the LA Times about the ban.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-elephant-ivory-20140212,0,7418233.story#axzz2toF4YyqI
 
I love the look of ivory, it's really a beautiful material, but when it comes to elephant ivory I plant to try and avoid it. It raises some ethical concerns with me and it's also very expensive and has the potential to crack (all natural handle materials do I suppose, but ivory seems more susceptible than others). I know the ivory used in knives should all be legal pre-ban, and I don't fault anyone who chooses it as a material because it certainly has its charms! I see all the ivory knives in the Bose thread and can't help but drool!

I'm also into playing billiards and ivory is often used in cue construction both as decoration and for functional pieces (joints, ferrules) for the feel it provides. The newly proposed restrictions on ivory is causing quite the dust up in that world.
 
I dont own any ivory handled knives but I sure want to. Its one of those things that is just timeless and always popular.

I spent time in East Africa many years ago and came across many beautiful pieces of carved ivory. I would have brought a few home had I thought I could have made it through customs.

I guess its one of those things you have to hold and feel to appreciate. My appreciation of ivory is one reason why im attracted to undyed bone and white synthetic materials....its about as close as I can get to the real thing.
 
Putting aside the elephant tusk argument, plain and simple, I just don't like white for a knife handle.
 
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