Thread: Preban ivory is my favorite material for scales

I have been working quietly since last August working with ivory,desert ironwood and G10.
I like all of those materials but ivory is my favorite:
I love how it comes alive with a classic glow, a few days afterwards the grains and familiar lines begin to form

I'm a little split on the ivory thing.
If I promote how nice it is on old razors where it's legal, people may want more of the stuff and thus killing elephants in the process.

I am a little split on that too but for old original razors I have no problem with ivory. The damage has already been done and it would be even more of a waste not to preserve the ivory. OTH I sure don't want to promote the illegal killing of Elephants or the sale of post ban ivory.

Bob

Just personally i reckon it's morally okay if you harvest the ivory yourself and ensure you utilise the whole animal with no waste...
Adam

Funny thing, I was waiting at the mechanics today and picked up a Nat. Geo mag. On the cover is a story about how the Ivory trade is picking up again. It went down after the ban but in the last few years the average is a staggering 53,000 elephants that die every year to illegal ivory poachers. I don't know for sure where the big demand is but I am guessing India and China. At -53k a year how long will there be wild elephants and then what's next ? I am not against using ivory or anybody that does. I will say after reading that article it lost it's appeal to me. I wanted to use some someday but I will pass on that and help keep the demand down. That's the best I can do for you and of course the elephants.

That's the problem with Ivory. There is no visual difference between pre- and post ban ivory. And as long as there is a demand, people will continue poaching elephants.

In general, I don't mind killing animals as long as the entire animal is used. But that is not what happens with poached ivory (or rhinoceros horn for that matter). The animal gets shot, the ivory removed, and then the carcass of the already endangered animal is let to rot.

But even if they'd eat the elephants, I still think it is wrong to hunt a species to extinction.