HUGE mammoth tusk!!

[Deckhand]

Theres no question its a nice piece and worthy of having! Now to work out all the details. Im thinking I will offer pre orders. to some of the knife makers and suppliers I know and deal with.. Just thinking out loud here.. Say selling it in 10 to 15 lb increments.. With option to have it processed further.. into scales and blocks.. etc. or take as a large piece/pieces. Allowing the end user to split it up any way they want. Again.. Im just thinking here.. nothing set in stone yet.. Its gona be the only way I can acquire this piece will be to do something like this.

More to come if this develops.




Deck hand if im understanding right.. your gona do a CASH give away!?!?! Thats too cool of ya! We all like money!

Yes, that's correct! I always try to turn things in my life into something positive. I am very grateful to all of the people that have really gone out of their way to show kindness. This forum is a really amazing place. I already couldn't pay back all of the kindness that has come my way.

[HHH Knives]

That is very cool!! I agree this is one amazing group of knife Knuts!!!!

[olpappy]

Personally I think it would be a terrible shame and very sad to cut up a large specimen like this into small pieces for knife handles. This tusk has survived millions of years of Mother Nature's destruction intact. There are plenty of smaller pieces of mammoth ivory already broken into pieces that can be used to make knives. Just my opinion.

[Eamon Burke]

olpappy, please don't think I'm being rude. I just have naught to do on a rainy day but bs on the web.

It is impressive, but what's the point of it existing? I mean, it's not something we can learn great truths or information from. It's just a really old bone. If he leaves it be, then we all die, and someone else finds it, and they leave it be, it's just a bone floating around the Earth like a piece of lint in the laundry. It has no value beyond "wow, that's a big tusk".

It does offer the chance for someone to use it for something unique, something that can only be done with such a large piece of tusk.

I used to think it was crazy to use dinosaur bones and fossils to make handles, but after thinking about it, why not? It's not damaging the environment, and they are just lumps in the dirt(it's not like an elephant-foot stool or anything). So we make them into knives, and enjoy them and appreciate them, and then we all die and they are lumps in the dirt again. The mammoth wasn't trying to build a legacy when he grew that tusk, he was just healthy and fortunate, had a great life, then he died and here's his tooth.

[HHH Knives]

Pappy, I can totally relate to what your saying and respect and appreciate your position.

I think I already said it. I would have a hard time cutting something of this magnitude into smaller sections. Yet at this point. Someone is going to do just that. And every time it is cut, the price per pound goes up. And continues to go up the further its processed. From strictly a business standpoint. you can see how this piece is very appealing!

[olpappy]

No offense taken, no offense meant, either. I also can appreciate your point of view. I just think that it is already a beautiful work of art as it is, and that there are only a finite number of pieces of mammoth ivory sitting in the ground. Some are big, some are small. Big pieces can be cut smaller, but the small pieces can't be made bigger. If I were a rich collector I would keep it intact to be admired for what it is, yeah just a really big tusk because it is cool. more common to find smaller pieces or broken pieces but less common a big one intact. So the fact that it is less common, to me makes it somewhat rare or valuable for that reason.

Now obviously the seller didn't take the trouble to polish it up or mount it as a specimen, so maybe as mammoth tusks go this isn't a particularly large or intact enough piece to merit the trouble. If it was really a rare specimen I suppose it would have ended up in some museum or somewhere they would really want to keep it as an intact piece. Maybe the vendor digs this stuff out of the ground all the time and was not especially impressed with this piece. Just as a layman who doesn't deal with mammoth ivory all the time my gut reaction is yeah its kinda special just because it's really big and not busted into smaller pieces.

It does offer the chance for someone to use it for something unique, something that can only be done with such a large piece of tusk.

That's part of what I'm saying, using a piece this size to make knife handles 5" long, is a lot of cutting down to size. Knife handles can be made from smaller pieces, a big piece would be needed if say a sculptor wanted to do a big sculpture with it or some ridiculous huge art piece.

Let's say this was 100 years ago and elephants were not endangered, if a hunter took a pair of elephant tusks they might mount it for display because they would be to be admired as-is. Or, they might chop them up and sell them in Asia to be carved into tiny trinkets....There's no right or wrong as to which is a better use of the material. I understand there is money to be made and I'm not criticizing the business end of it, I'm just thinking from an esthetic point of view. We all admire fossil ivory for its natural beauty. I happen to think looking at a huge hunk of it has a beauty of its own which is something distinctive from when it is used as a raw material to craft other stuff.

[Eamon Burke]

Maybe it should be made into a ceremonial horn. Or a giant pepper mill. Oo! Randy's hood ornament!

[richard harley]

i would make it into handles so quick your head would swim and sleeeepppp well at night

[PierreRodrigue]

Theres no question its a nice piece and worthy of having! Now to work out all the details. Im thinking I will offer pre orders. to some of the knife makers and suppliers I know and deal with.. Just thinking out loud here.. Say selling it in 10 to 15 lb increments.. With option to have it processed further.. into scales and blocks.. etc. or take as a large piece/pieces. Allowing the end user to split it up any way they want. Again.. Im just thinking here.. nothing set in stone yet.. Its gona be the only way I can acquire this piece will be to do something like this.

More to come if this develops.

I like this idea. Just sayin' It would be a great piece to polish and display for sure. But just think how many knives will have be adorned with something that may have rotted in the dirt unknown.

[HHH Knives]

Indeed. I agree with both sides and there is no right or wrong way to go on this.

If I am able to secure the piece. It will become a useful and well loved knife handle, or in this case.. many handles.

Pierre, if you would like to get some we need to talk.