Thread: Are they Ivory???

I found this on ebay. The seller states the scales are real elephant ivory. In my limited experience I can say that I think I have seen these scales before on another razor and they where celluliod. Someone asked this same quesiton of the seller. His response was condinsending at best, but direct in insisting that they are ivory.

Will this learned quorum of razor aficionado give their consensus?

J.R.Torrey Pre-Ban Ivory handled Straight Razor US ONLY - eBay (item 160274541825 end time Dec-18-08 13:15:47 PST)



Thank you,
Ed M

I believe the test for it is to take a HOT safety pin and see if it goes into the scale or if it does not it is Ivory....

Its hard to tell from a pic at best unless someone has one that is and can tell you if it is.

Just common celluloid, you are right, great razor, nice scales, should sell for about 1/10th of the starting bid, unless its shave ready and depending on the rarity/condition of those particular scales. The hot pin test to the inside of the scales would tell the truth.

hard to tell by looking, the only trusted way to determine is the hot pin test.

from his pix (which are small and badly taken) some of the surface details reflect light with an odd sheen, that doesn't look like most of the real ivory i've handled. not saying it definitely isn't ivory, but if i was a betting man, i'd bet they were celluloid.

could be wrong though, the pix aren't real good.

One thing I've always read about ivory is that it's almost always thin,and rarely carved.

A lot of people mistake celluloid for ivory. All of those heavily decorated handles are celluloid also known as "French ivory".

Originally Posted by FastEdge

His response was condinsending at best, but direct in insisting that they are ivory.

Just reading the attitude in that response to a question makes me more than certain I never want to do business with this guy. Never ever, no matter what the item, or how much I want it, do I want to put up with the crud he would throw if anything went wrong.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

A lot of people mistake celluloid for ivory. All of those heavily decorated handles are celluloid also known as "French ivory".

This was my impression, mostly, I have heard of figured ivory but I've also heard of its extreme rarity.

Two points that say these are celluloid: The relief is too deep and the bottom pin isn't there - the scales are bonded and ivory scales are never bonded. They are celluloid. I have a pair of carved real ivory scaled razors and the difference to the surface is marked in contrast with this one. Plus for real, carved ivory the price is too cheap!

I hate to disagree with blueprinciple, but I have had an old one-piece ivory scaled razor with no bottom pin, but it had cracked at the bottom, so I had to pin it anyway.

It was much thicker than normal - thick enough to take a bit of relief carving (not that it had any, just a bit of scrimshaw) and was definitely ivory - it had the roughly parallel lines acros the length, the (often not that evident) v-section grain at right angles to the long lines, and it didn't melt.

Those scales on the Torrey don't look that convincing to me, though. Probably synthetic.

Regards,
Neil

Whats that nonsense he is writing in the bottom? About sending the razor back for free repair?Didn't quite make sense to me....
Btw.The company went out of buisniess in 1963.
No chance thats Ivory.