Thread: How to tell Bone from Ivory?

Originally Posted by RMarsh

this might be a silly question, but does ivory have any give to it? I have a Joseph Rodgers with ivory colored scales but they bend a little, and I would imagine ivory would be more rigid than that.

If by give you mean you can flex them if you squeeze the front to the back, I would say they could be ivory. If they are thin like the ones looking edgeways in post 27 they are probably ivory. Collarless pins and all. If they are thick and have collars I doubt it.

Those ivory single action grips are bad to the bone. I always thought about putting a set on my SAA 44spll but the spirit is willing and the wallet is weak.

I got lucky with them, Jimmy. My source had the blank for years, he had a down payment on it, but the buyer disappeared & changed his contact info. When I got them, the blank was partially paid for.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

If by give you mean you can flex them if you squeeze the front to the back, I would say they could be ivory. If they are thin like the ones looking edgeways in post 27 they are probably ivory. Collarless pins and all. If they are thick and have collars I doubt it.

Those ivory single action grips are bad to the bone. I always thought about putting a set on my SAA 44spll but the spirit is willing and the wallet is weak.

Thanks for the info! They are indeed collarless and very thin, looks like it could be ivory...

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Sorry,But The schreger lines in real ivory mean everything.

True, but what I was referring to is the fact that most of the celluloid stuff has lines in it to mimic real ivory. To the uninitiated the presence of lines might be taken for genuine stuff when it's not.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

True, but what I was referring to is the fact that most of the celluloid stuff has lines in it to mimic real ivory. To the uninitiated the presence of lines might be taken for genuine stuff when it's not.

+1, early on in my razor collecting I had a couple that were faux ivory and couple that were the real Mc'Coy. What I noticed was that the celluloids pattern was uniform from end to end and on each scale. The genuine article was somewhat random with some variation in the grain. I've had some ivory scaled razors where the grain was only visible holding the scales at an angle to catch the light. Straight on it was not apparent. Others stand out to the naked eye quite readily. Interesting stuff. I wonder how much of the vintage production of ivory scales came from elephant tusk and how much came from other sources of ivory ?

I wish they had used collars instead of peening right into the ivory. I have seen a bunch of split ivory scales from the stress.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

+1, early on in my razor collecting I had a couple that were faux ivory and couple that were the real Mc'Coy. What I noticed was that the celluloids pattern was uniform from end to end and on each scale. The genuine article was somewhat random with some variation in the grain. I've had some ivory scaled razors where the grain was only visible holding the scales at an angle to catch the light. Straight on it was not apparent. Others stand out to the naked eye quite readily. Interesting stuff. I wonder how much of the vintage production of ivory scales came from elephant tusk and how much came from other sources of ivory ?

Agreed,as TBS said above,once you see and feel the real deal you will never mistake cell from Ivory.
Jim I would bet 99.9% was Elephant,you on occasion see some walrus but they are very rare,and there is no mistaking walrus from elephant.

I thought it might be useful to gather up most of my ivory hafted gear and get a picture or six. As I was carrying all these over to the spot I take pictures, my wife saw them and went 'RAD!'

Anyway, the appearance of ivory can vary a great deal depending on how it's been stored, cared for and restored. It's a bit difficult to get good pictures of because what gives it its characteristic appearance is actually structures inside the material. Auto-focus cameras have a very hard time getting a lock because the edges of the pattern are indistinct and subtly change from viewing angle. It can be easier to visualize the appearance by doing heavy photo-manipulation.

Here's that same picture, but punched way up so the patterns of the ivory are more visible.



With it in-hand and a good strong light you'll be able to see the patterns pretty easily by just slightly moving the piece around, but they won't be as vivid as this picture. I punched it up like that because it makes it easier to see what you're looking for. Also notice that not all of them have obvious patterning. If you get closer in, things change.





If you right click on the images and choose 'view' you'll get higher res versions than the forum shows in posts. You can see that some which look featureless from a distance have very fine, relatively even lines. The patterns vary based a medium-density collection of factors.

(That weird scalpel-looking thing with the seal-tail end is a mid-Victorian Joseph Rodgers ink eraser)

You can see the lines in this brush also:

That's a Beauty, Spendur.