Thread: Some ancient tusk arrives

My long-lusted-over Dovo Mammoth Ivory razor arrived today





And the stage is already set for tomorrow morning...

That is very cool.

What a beauty! Thanks for sharing.

Dave

Those are very nice scales. IMO dovo had a little nerve on this one though.... Seems like an awful lot of handle and not enough blade... It would have been cool to see a Bismarck style blade in those incredible mammoth ivory handles. To me the blade is too basic to justify the cost. Of course ymmv... Congrats on it though, I don't know any one else who has one! I have a 5/8 hollow dovo, I suppose it would shave similar to that which is well. Happy shaving

Beautiful acquisition. Let us know how she shaves if you will.

Very nice razor,mammoth is very difficult to work with,they did a very nice job,enjoy.

beautiful scales...I wonder what the other side looks like......I think I would put Mammoth Ivory at the top of my scale list....the gold is a nice touch also.....

I have had a love for mammoth for a very long time

50 years ago when I was at university studying geology, we were taken on a field trip to a very uninspiring gravel pit. It was a very cold day and the workings were full of frozen water. We spent about six hours there, with frankly, nothing of interest to see. Our lecturer informed us before the trip that a mammoth tooth had once been found there in the gravel. (He omitted to tell us the simple fact that it was found in 1875!)

So a bored group of students spent all morning shouting out "Found a mammoth's tooth".... until we sat on a pile of gravel having a packed lunch and hot tea, freezing our testicles off. I leaned backwards, put down my hand, and picked it up. "I found a mammoth's tooth!". It had been uttered about a hundred times already that day, and the joke was sour. But there in my hand I held up my prize. :-)

I still have that tooth, sitting on a shelf on the dining room cabinet.

About ten years ago I managed to get hold of a couple of pieces of mammoth ivory which I used to make some scales for that Wharncliffe bladed knife you see in the photo above. I use that knife almost every day. (Its not a closet piece!) I just made a note to re-polish that ivory... it has stood up well to all the use but close inspection shows a lot of tiny marks. The scales will polish up nicely again though.

And my new razor will be used too! It is definitely not going to be just a show piece!

Rod

A picture of both sides....


The staining is of course just natural mineralisation, and there is a hint of copper green at one end too.

I actually had the choice of two razors. The other one was a much darker brown all over.

Rod

Beautiful scales Neep! I have admired that model for awhile now.

Pixelfixed, what makes mammoth ivory hard to work? Hardness?

I have a friend that claims to have eaten mammoth meat. He found it as it emerged from an eroding stream bank in Alaska. Apparently it gave him the runs.