A question of color

I've seen several different razors with ivory scales and some are snow white and some cream colored and one that i just acquired is kind of pinkish. Does anyone have an idea of why the different shades of scales. I would have thought that they ivory would be so hard that dying them would be almost impossible. Now back in the day when i smoked and drank a lot of wine it was hard to get the stain out my original teeth but to my knowledge Elephants didn't smoke or drink and if they had a grass stain they would be greenish. anyone have any ideas.

Good question. More knowledgeable folks than me will be along, but I'd hazard a guess that all ivory isn't elephant ivory. Walrus, hippo, that and maybe all elephants aren't quite the same, just as homo sapiens vary in shades/colors.

This is a question I too have pondered. I do really that the environment has an effect on what color they turn over time. I do have a set somewhere that is a little pinkish too, but the other side is quite white and I had attributed it to having been store on a red fabric, like in a case. I have no real answer for you though.

Elephant ivory can be quite thick, and is seldom of uniform color throughout.

Just a guess but I would think it depends on source of ivory. Elephant, Mammoth or what ever else they use.

5 different sources for ivory in this article;

Identifying Different Types of Ivory

Ivory is really more of a cream color. The further in you go the whiter it gets. That's elephant I'm talking about. With mammoth you're talking fossilized material just that the process is just beginning so the colors at the surface reflect the minerals beginning to replace the organic material. The surface material is the most prized and rarest.

Ivory exposed to sunlight will change color over the years. Along with the oils from your skin. I am not sure about pink though.

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Originally Posted by rhensley

I've seen several different razors with ivory scales and some are snow white and some cream colored and one that i just acquired is kind of pinkish. Does anyone have an idea of why the different shades of scales. I would have thought that they ivory would be so hard that dying them would be almost impossible. Now back in the day when i smoked and drank a lot of wine it was hard to get the stain out my original teeth but to my knowledge Elephants didn't smoke or drink and if they had a grass stain they would be greenish. anyone have any ideas.

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When the tusks were cut into scales they were white, but with time it turned colored. The yellow is usually from oils, pink/blue/green from the linking of the storage box. Snow white is from cleaning it up, e.g. peroxide or UV exposure, for example by leaving it on sunlight.