Thread: Pics of real Ivory handles?

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.