Thread: Pics of real Ivory handles?

Vern,

sometimes I visit Buddel. If his clients like, he uses also mammoth-ivory to create nice-looking scales for his custom-razors.
And I think also some other "artists" use mammoth-ivory for scales and handles.

Originally Posted by Utopian

That thin stuff didn't hold up too well past a hundred years or so.

Can't you just hear the salesman back then? "Yes sir, the ivory scales ARE indeed thin, but they'll serve you well during your lifetime. Let's face it, it will be some other chap's problem when they start to crack."

Originally Posted by Gibbs

The brush Thebigspender had pictures is very nice. I saw another ivory handle brush on another "den" shaving forum. Were there many ivory brushes made or are they the scarce hens teeth of shaving supplies?

Ivory for scales was really pretty common stuff as was Tortoise though not as common as ivory was. Brushes were never common in ivory mostly due to cost but they are out there mostly in collections though. The one I have was newly manufactured up in Canada and the guy who made it went on a 6 month search to source a legal chunk of Elephant Ivory that was preban. Most ivory you see now that is newly manufactured is Mamouth which is different and partially fossilized.

Smuggling in ivory is a real issue and all this "preban" stuff floating around I doubt is preban. Many countries do not allow sales in ivory period, some like us allow preban and when they cull the heards in S Africa periodically that's legal in the U.S IF you can document the source which isn't an easy thing to do. By customs regs antique anything means 100+ years old.

Below is a Dorko with Mammoth Scales and a Puma with Celluloid made to look like ivory.

For close-up comparison here are fairly representative samples.

A Wostenholm in celluloid. Too thick, no glow or translucence, lines too dark and even. Pretty, but looks artificial:



A Case Bradford in Bone. It's thin, it's natural, it's fairly smooth. But it has no glow, no grain beneath the surface, and it has telltale brown splotches or pits at the ends that are associated with where tendons connected to bone:




Mappin & Webb in elephant ivory. Thin (on vintage scales), translucent glow, very smooth, lots of organic grain pattern. Like highly figured wood, the figuring becomes more or less apparent when viewed in different light or viewed at different angles



Here's a modern re-scaling that goes against type - thick, fairly squared edges, little glow, collared pins, and faint but pretty straight/regular grain:

Originally Posted by Gibbs

The brush Thebigspender had pictures is very nice. I saw another ivory handle brush on another "den" shaving forum. Were there many ivory brushes made or are they the scarce hens teeth of shaving supplies?

Plisson has one on their website right now for about 5 or 6 hundred USD. That is if you can get it through customs. You have to be a "big spendur" to have a brush with an ivory handle.

Another tip for ivory scales - look on the inside of them. There are often the sawmarks left there from when they were cut - theses are generally curved slightly as circular saws are (again generally) used. Celluloid of course is smooth.

Well, it's ivory. It has single pins with no washer, a crack at the pin, thin, and looking inside it has saw marks on the inside of the schales. It is somewhat translucent and very smooth on the outer surface where some of the plastic I have, are not always "surface" smooth.

Ivory can also be had in the form of pool/billiard Que balls. It was fairly common in the early vintage pool Que balls, until the Ivory trade was getting expensive and a little scarce. They then had to develop some form of substitute that worked as well as Ivory. This link shows an Ivory Pool Que ball that if you look close you can see the Schreger lines or angles in this picture.

I suppose theres no way todays find is ivory? wishful thinking?
theres a small crack at the rear of the scales...
The blade is a boker king cutter with a semi visible etch...
Thanks!

It looks like it could be bone if it is natural - I can not tell if those are pores near the wedge pin or dirt trapped in scratches. They are not ivory. Nice blade though!