hilt for comment

[David]

Well honestly i don't like the first one very much. Perhaps it's the material as i have never liked the look of all the moose antler hilts that are coming out of this area of late. I actually prefer the look of deer antler. The staining of this hilt also has a forced aging look about it.
The carving on the ganesha is much nicer. Are you sure this is whale "ivory"? Is new whale ivory even legal in that area? It certainly would have trouble passing customs abroad.

[Ganja Iras]

Hi David ,
Thank you for your opinion .
well i am very sure about the material is whale ivory.
my friends from flores ( east nusa tenggara ) gave me some whale tooths last year.
in his place ,there is a yearly traditional ceremony ( whale hunting ) ,but unfortunately i can't give you more info about it ,sorry for that.
here i include some pic's of the material.
thank you ,

Ganja iras

[David]

Yep, that looks like sperm whale teeth to me.
No need to tell us any more about the traditional whale hunting in Flores. There is plenty of info about this on the web and the hunt has become something of a tourist attraction with week long tours scheduled around it so you will find a lot of hits on a google search for this.
Of course most of the world has a moratorium on the hunting of sperm whales and they are on the endangered spices list here in the USA. Sale of this material collected after CITES (1973) is considered illegal in most parts of the world AFAIK. While it is obviously a better looking material for working into hilts than moose antler i would image that there are great difficulties and dangers in selling these hilts to an international market.

[Jean]

Originally Posted by David

Well honestly i don't like the first one very much. Perhaps it's the material as i have never liked the look of all the moose antler hilts that are coming out of this area of late. I actually prefer the look of deer antler. The staining of this hilt also has a forced aging look about it.
The carving on the ganesha is much nicer. Are you sure this is whale "ivory"? Is new whale ivory even legal in that area? It certainly would have trouble passing customs abroad.

I also don't like too much the prabu hilt especially because the head is disproportionate (too big) to the body. The colour of the nice Ganesha hilt looks very white and uniform for spermwhale ivory but it may be because it is new.
Regards

[David]

Originally Posted by Jean

I also don't like too much the prabu hilt especially because the head is disproportionate (too big) to the body.

I think that disproportion was also a big part of what turned me off to this hilt.

[Battara]

I too was not turned on by the color nor the massive head of the first one. However the Ganesha is nice.

Also I thought sperm tooth was very white would therefore create a whitening effect. Not seen much sperm whale tooth with patina.

[David]

Originally Posted by Battara

Not seen much sperm whale tooth with patina.

Have you looked at much old scrimshaw José? Plenty of patina on those puppies.

[Marcokeris]

By the pic the white hilt seems made by moose horn

[Jean]

AFAIK the inner core of sperm whale tooth (made from dentin) has a yellowish colour and shows concentric rings but of course this may vary from one specimen to another and depending on the age of the piece.
The 2 attached Bugis hilts from Sulawesi are made from sperm whale ivory I think (other opinions are welcome) and they show a deep yellow patination.
Regards
PS: See the yellow core of the largest (broken) tooth shown by Ganja Iras