Scale Question - Bone or Ivory?

[vreddy2000]

here's an easy way to eliminate plastic

heat a safety pin and try to poke on the inside of the scale..if plastic it will go thru like butter..

 

[life2short1971]

Could I see a closeup of the ends of the scales please? Also does the grain disappear at different angles?

 

[Gamma]

The razor is boxed and on its way back to Noah now.

 

[Isaac]

its definitely ivory

 

[life2short1971]

Did you see any lines at the very ends that crossed each other at at a 90-120 angle? Do you remember if the lines went away when viewed for different angles?

 

[Gamma]

Wedge end didn't have the hatching, the other end may have but I didn't inspect it so very thoroughly.
You do have to move the scales around under the light to see the lines clearly. That's why that photo was taken at that angle.
Whatever it's made out of - the scales are seriously aged and I didn't want to take the patina off.
I only bought it because I needed a few razors to test out some new Naguras with.
I'm glad it's going back to Noah.

 

[kingping]

First, I'm just so proud of this community that has repeatedly offered to recycle plastic! Talk about environmental stewardship...
Secondly, I have a similar situation with an Anton Erik Berg and have found this thread helpful. (I know it's come up before, I just haven't looked...)

Thanks all!

 

[life2short1971]

It sure sounds like Ivory and as for kingping and the EAB it won't have washers if its ivory. This pair of scales seems to be the exception to the rule. When scales are bone you see the holes or dots that are almost always present in bone.

 

[onotoman]

Image has been removed, but as Scott points out, bone is porous and the tiny holes or dots always show.

Ivory usually has a lovely yellowed look to it and if you look closely you should see a fine WWWWWWWWW sort of zigzag present especially looking at the cross-section. I have an Ivory Travel Brush where it's easy to see the zigzag but with scales, it's a bit more difficult.

The Ebay Seller of my brush described it as bone, but I took a punt and it's actually stamped (faintly) IVORY - very old though.

 

[life2short1971]

Sellers sometimes list ivory as "natural material" or "bone" because listing ivory on eBay is forbidden.