Ivory or bone ?

[Hotspur]

Originally Posted by mariusgmioc

Hello Hotspur,

I tried the hot needle on ivory, bone and some sort of fake ivory and NONE of them was affected in any way. So I can say this is definitely a more anecdotal than a working and reliable test.

Second, when polishing bone and ivory, I noticed they smell very similarly, like the dentist drilling a tooth, so the smell test can also be very misleading.

So I believe the most reliable way to identify ivory is by examining its structure under a magnifying glass.

I was thinking about some different materials, you are quite correct. Call it a brain cramp.

I did recently scrape some material and torched the bits and it did smell like a visit to the dentist. That was on a painted ray handle.

Cheers

GC