Thread: Is it wrong to try to get my hands on some of this?

Killing animals to only use a single part is just wrong, wasteful, inefficient. Wrong because killing off the top and bottom of a food chain can have drastic effects for the future of the environment in which we all must live in. Or our children. Plus most people would probably consider it distasteful morally. Wasteful and inefficient because the rest of the animal is just wasted.

Now, if the animals were part of a culling, or if some indigent people needed some food and ate the rest of the animal with the tusks being "waste," then I probably wouldn't have a problem with it.

yada, yada, yada. In the end its a decision you must make and live with. If you can get the stuff from S Africa when they cull the heards its legal depending on local laws.

There's other types of Ivory you can use which is legal and of course the pre-ban stuff however I suspect much of that is illegal. There's just too much of the stuff being discovered all the time.

As I understand, old pianos used ivory for their keys. If you find a crappy old grand, you could always recycle the keys for scale.

Originally Posted by mosley59

As I understand, old pianos used ivory for their keys. If you find a crappy old grand, you could always recycle the keys for scale.

Does the ivory cover only the visible part or the entire length of the key?
If the former, then it will be too short for scales. You coulduse it for inlays though.