Friday, December 1, 2006

One Way to Tell Real Ivory from Fake

Jarod's Tip of the Day:
If someone is selling you a piece of ivory or scrimshaw and you want to know if it is real, find a non-prominent part and scratch it a little with your finger. If it smells like burnt hair, that is a good sign. If you can't smell anything, a sure-fire test is to take a heated pin and press it into the ivory. If you get that "burned tooth" smell like a lovely dentist drill, it is real. If it smells like burned plastic, give it away as a christmas gift to the in-laws!
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the tip! I will try it with scrimshaw that I bought for Hoppy. I hope it's real!
Mary
Eustis, FL

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the tip! I have some scrimshaw that I bought and hope it is real. I will give it the test!
Mary
Eustis, FL

Anonymous said...

Now THAT's a knife.
-Crocodile Dundee

Anonymous said...

appreciate the info, i'm getting into this whole ivory thing and i've been wondering if there's a way to test it