Thread: Identifying Ivory

Thanks. I'm fairly sure these scales actually are ivory, but will need to check when I get home. You guys are great; I'm not bad a finding data online, but there is an awful lot of useless stuff out there about ivory, and this is a very usefull distilled set of information.

I have two razors with ivory scales. On both sets the scales are very thin. I would imagine that since you've cleaned and sanded yours that they are pretty much white now. Ivory yellows with age and handling. The grain in ivory is rarely ( from what I've seen ) like the lines you see in in faux or "French ivory which is celluloid. The celluloid has very regular grain in it whereas ivory is pretty random.
Here is a fairly close view of one.


and another view of another


a typical break



with a view of bone thrown in

Actually,seeing a crack at the wedge end is atypical.IME

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Actually,seeing a crack at the wedge end is atypical.IME

I was referring to how it breaks rather than where it breaks.

From the looks of that one, I suspect it was dropped and that piece broke. The band was put on it to hold it together.

Here are a couple of pics. I'm thinking they are ivory.

Not Bone,might be ivory,hard to tell,unusual pinning for Ivory scaled razors.
Maybe a re-scale.

Here is some ivory, cleaned up. I wish to know how many types of ivory, from different creatures, were used in scale construction, and how to tell the difference? The Shreger lines and their characteristics, or lack thereof, will tell! Counting on Pixelfixed for this!