Thread: You did what?!

Old Antique Vintage French Straight Razor Shaft Tang Bone Horn or Thiers | eBay

Ok, so browsing the bay b/c I'm bored and I come upon this one. Sounds ok in the title listing, tang cover could probably be buffed up; looks ok other than the frown. Now I scroll down to the listing description: Doesn't know if the tang cover is bone, plastic, whatever...so I took a red hot needle and poked it...not plastic. Is this really something you would do with a piece you didn't know about????? Just wandering.

Well, it is an accepted way of testing for ivory or bone. We usually tell people to do it somewhere where it won't be noticed.

No test needed. that is an ivory tang with horn scales.

Agreed. He might be more savvy than we think. He can't say it's ivory if he's selling it on eBay, even if it's being shipped here (where I'm sure it's legal due to age). He found a way to tell us it's not plastic without saying it's ivory.