Thread: Lucked out on a W&B...

Wohoo. This one was like finding gold, I tell you . Such a nice blade!! Only downside was the scales, they where fantastic, but broken bad . Found it in a antique shop together with a Helje 32, and even tough that was sweet, this one´s the gem. Happy happy!!

Very nice W&B. It's such a shame someone ground her, but still a great find. I hope you picked up that Helje too...

Originally Posted by holli4pirating

Very nice W&B. It's such a shame someone ground her, but still a great find. I hope you picked up that Helje too...

Yes and yes, even though the Helje has a nagg in the edge, I think/hope she´ll be fine once fixed

Oh that Klas is sweeeeeeeeeeeeet

Originally Posted by holli4pirating

Oh that Klas is sweeeeeeeeeeeeet

Sschhh, not to loud . I love them, think they shave very well and almost allways has much cooler shapes than the Heljes.

The nick in the helje will hone out. The little Tornblom is just like on I have that is a very sweet shaver. Nice haul.

Yes, I think so too. Thank you! Will prob. take off close to an 1/16 though.

Beautiful grain on the Heljestrand ivory scales! Wonder what kind of ivory? The grain is not fine so I am thinking sea mammal. I'm not an expert by any means.

Thank you Croaker! That´s a good question! I allways thought they used elephant, but I can be wrong - my wife keeps telling me that that happens, but I´m not convinced though .

I´ll ask Neil Miller, he knows for sure. I love nice natural meterials, like wood and bone. I´ve some camel bone scales on the way and I´m very ecxited to see them irl.

Hi Mikael!

I think its elephant ivory. The grain structure is very variable: some is very fine with hardly or no visible grain structure while others have the classic Schreger lines as well as flecks/marbling. The flecks and marbling are more prominent near the outside surface - as you get nearer to the interior of the tusk it becomes denser and more even in appearance.

The type of elephant - african or asian - also influences the look and workability of the ivory. Asian is softer and whiter and easier to work than african. Even the african type is subdivided into soft and hard types. For the last few hundred years african ivory has been favoured.

Most other types of ivory come from hippo, narwhal, sperm whale and walrus.

Narwhal ivory is hollow and has the spiral growth pattern through it and is easily recognisable. That from sperm whales often has globular artefacts in it and a dark line. Walrus has a fine ring-like structure on the outside and a layer of what loks like rice pudding on the inside (it is as hard as the outer layer, though, and not good with jam!). Ivory from hippos is very hard and usually has no grain structure.

The definitive test for elephant (and mammoth) ivory is the presence of Schreger lines - the other types do not have these lines that look like cross hatching, 'v's or 'w's. They are sometimes hard to discern although a cross-section that has been highly polished will reveal them.

The diagram below (taken from a 1999 CITES Ivory pamphlet) shows a cross section and shows how the veining gets more obvious nearer the outside of the tusk:



Regards,
Neil