Thread: Real Ivory or Faux?

Originally Posted by Lemur

A hot glowing pin pressed on the inside of the scales works fine!

I've been told the smoke from a hot pin on ivory will smell like burning hair, plus plastic will probably just melt right through.

Listen to Pixelfixed. That is a far better, less destructive test.

There's no need for hot pins if you've got sunlight and a digital camera, and THAT test will tell you whether it's ivory or bone, which the hot pin test will not unless you really know what you're doing.

Some bone is very obviously bone, but not all of it, just as some ivory is very obviously ivory. There's a middle gray area and bright sun and a camera will sort that right out.

What you do is take a picture in very strong, directional light (IE, the angle of the light is coming strongly from the side of the material). Just the sunlight might be enough to see the patterns, but if not, take your picture and take it into any simple photo editing software and turn the contrast all the way up. The patterns will become apparent. Look through this thread, the pictures there will give you what you need.

Good info! A hot pin would not differentiate ivory from bone and, if hot enough, would badly mark or possibly set celluloid on fire! Pictures are really best. IMO, the OP should carefully study the two on the right in the first pic. I think these 2 are absolutely ivory and should be a good example to compare to. As you have handled and seen a few, you will not be mistaken in the future. Collarless pinning is most often an indicator of ivory/bone, esp in English and Swedish razors, but there are exceptions. Certainly Ivory and bone do not warp and are somewhat thinner than Cell. As in the second pic, second razor down. The scales are thick, pinned with collars, and are bending under the top pins. Celluloid!

It is hard to tell Bone from Ivory on razor scales,

Jimmy's pics show quite well how obvious Celluloid is from thickness to pinning and even shape and just plain feel As the saying goes once you hold real Ivory scales you won't ever ask again..

Both Ivory and Bone are very Thin .045-.065 is the average Bone sometimes has a slight contour (curve/bevel) to the outside that is a good tell, pinning is sometimes a tell also but not always..
The Schreger lines in the Ivory vs the Holes in bone are a great tell if they are visible..

Posting good pics here is a solid bet that we can tell Natural vs Manmade and a possible bet that we can tell Bone from Ivory..

I'll post some pictures in a bit.. thanks.

The pin test.. I think I'll pass on that.

From what has been shared in this thread so far, I'll take a guess that the top razor is ivory, based on how thin the scales are.

The bottom one? Faux Ivory?

Yes! I have also not seen bolsters over ivory, not that it hasn't been done!
Now look at the graining and the feel of each. Tap the material on a front tooth. You can tell there as well!

Other things to watch for:

Ivory (and bone) will often still have visible saw marks on the insides of the scales. Even if you can't tell bone from ivory, that will at the least rule out synthetics.

I've never seen a celluloid (or other synthetic) handle with a metal wedge, yet the vast majority of ivory handles have metal wedges. I've only come across one razor dressed in ivory that had a synthetic wedge. Bone is more of a toss up - usually 20th century examples have synthetic wedges, but prior to 1880 had wedges of metal, horn, or even more bone.

http://www.cites.org/eng/resources/p...vory-guide.pdf

Awesome info.. thanks all!