Thread: How to tell Bone from Ivory?

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

These elephant tusks certainly look like they contain figuration right down to the centre:

Attachment 123346Attachment 123347

The area below the shreger lines is referred to as The Lines of Owen, so I suppose that in some examples that is patterned too.

Regards,
Neil

I wonder if this is a difference from where along the shaft the cross-section is taken, or if it's just the individual variation?

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

These elephant tusks certainly look like they contain figuration right down to the centre:

Attachment 123346Attachment 123347

The area below the shreger lines is referred to as The Lines of Owen, so I suppose that in some examples that is patterned too.

Regards,
Neil

Thats the very tip section, The last 10in.or so of the tusk and a great shot of the nerve canal.
Tips always command top $ as the lines become more intense.

The thing that's extra interesting to me about that cross-section is that the pattern is pretty clearly a two-point sourced wave propagation interference pattern.

Well, I'm not willing to say that's what it is mathematically (math is hard, let's go shopping for razors!), but from a visual representation standpoint, it's a very familiar noise pattern for me.

If I remember correctly the way to tell Elephant from say Mammoth is the angle that the lines cross at.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

If I remember correctly the way to tell Elephant from say Mammoth is the angle that the lines cross at.

Less than 90 degs (Mammoth) greater than 110ish (Elephant)

"Bone is much more porous than ivory." And they said the information learned on 'Pawn Stars' was useless. Lol.