Way back when ivory was still an option for grip material, a "reputable" grip maker offered me a small piece of ivory with a blood vessel showing. He commented that this always shushes the nay-sayers, as it's obviously the real thing.

The tiny NAA grips have nestled in the safe all these years. Now, this many years later, when I dig'em out and recall the artisan's statement, just out of curiosity, I ask on the internet if ivory has blood vessels.

An article pops up that says if it has blood vessels, it's bone, not quite as hard as ivory, and that ivory has no blood vessels. I know the bit about Honest Abe saying everything he ever read on the net was the truth. Regardless of the material, the grips are not for sale.

Ivory or not?

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Ivory comes from the teeth and fangs of mammals while bone is a component of the skeletal system. The bones have tiny pores due to the presence of blood vessels that run through them. Ivory has lines or circles.

So say the experts.

Your image has great focus on the back cloth, but, the subject matter could be more in-focus.

bdGreen

Certainly no expert here but my first impression is not ivory.
Never heard or read of ivory having blood vessels. It does have Schreger lines.

I think I have ivory grips on my Colt 45 SAA that was produced in 1982.
When did the U.S. ban ivory importation?
I saw on the Traveling Road Show how to test for genuine ivory with a red hot needle, and if smells like burning hair it's ivory.

My wife has been “skriming” for over 40 years now. (She’s actually listed as one of the top 100.) Whatever.

My job is to cut it up and polish the pieces prior to her scrimshaw.

I’ve never heard of blood spots but I think I know what you are asking.

In the picture, the left example, the “white” walrus tusk definitely has the sorta red spots. The fossilized walrus example on the right does not have the spots. None of the fossilized mastodon or walrus tusks/pieces we’ve worked had those spots. I can’t compare elephant ivory cause we’ve never, and will never work with it.

Jim

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I guess I should mention cross grains too.

All ivory has distinctive cross grains. Grips are generally made from the outer portion due to the inner part behind crystal like.

You should be able to look at the bottom portion of your grips and hopefully see cross grains.

In the picture the left is walrus, (there are cross grains but I polished it so it’s hard to photo. The right is mastodon and the cross grains are very apparent. I’ve been told that elephant ivory is exactly like the mastodon in respect to the cross grains.

Sorry to be so scattered in my response.

Jim

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My only gun with Ivory S&W Perfected. The hot pin test will only eliminate man made materials. I would suspect any natural material bone, antler, ivory, ect would spell like hair burning plastic just melts.

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Randy

Blood vessels in bone and antler, no vessels in ivory of any kind.
Ivory is a tusk and grows continuously thus the growth rings.
A tusk is technically not a tooth, teeth do not grow continuously.

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SWHF #595

I apologize for the out-of-focus pic and appreciate the input. From info gathered here, I now believe I have an ivory grip (not grips) on my NAA. The right grip shows a great deal of the grain mentioned above. The dot near the screw in the left grip looks enough like what I would expect a tiny hole through which blood might flow to cause me to think that grip is not synthetic but is also not ivory......

Thanks for the schoolin.

Kinda crazy that the two halves would be out of different material. If one is ivory, I'm betting both are.

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Charlie

I have used Ivory to make grips . and have found a black line in the center of the tusk as i was slabbing them. It is not large in dia. but it is long from the hollow end at the base almost to the tip.I was informed that only male elephants have this line (not confirmed)But the black line was present.

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age is just a number

I have bone and ivory stocks and danged if I can tell them apart. Natural material is very heavy so hefting the stocks in your hand will tell you they are either bone or ivory but that's as far as I can get.

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No life story has happy end.

I think the grip in question could quite possibly be ivory, with the small imperfection dot being just that a mark on the tusk from damage during the animals lifetime.
They keep the tusks through out their entire life. They use them for fighting, rooting up the ground, overturning things, and sometimes they do get entangled in man-made stuff .
Not an easy life I suspect.

A few small marks would be expected.

The mark could also have come after the tusk was taken from the animal. It's not the prettiest process and often done in a hurry by poachers to avoid detection .
Ivory tusks are stacked and dried much the same as wood needs to be before it's worked. That process is done hastily and crudely as is the transport of the ivory to hide it from detection.

The tusk grows from the inside out in layers.
They are actually teeth, they are extended incisors (sp?) on an elephant IIRC.
The upper portion hidden back inside the head is hollow and the hollow portion contains tissue, nerves and blood vessels,,pulp it's usually refered to.
Maybe this grip was cut from the thin portion of a tusk at that end. But there still should be no blood vessels in the ivory itself I don't believe.
The part of the tusk outside the head is more solid and with a smaller pulp core up close to the head then gradually closing down to a solid tusk as it runs it's length to the end.
That black line in the center is a nerve cavity that runs the entire length of the tusk right to the end..
The 'Ivory' is a combination of tooth dentin (sp?) and tooth enamel.

African elephants both male and female have tusks.
Asian elephants primarily the male has tusks,
with some female Asian elephants having very short tusks. Usually the female has none.

Maybe Not .... Back in the early 1970's I bought a set of real Indian Elephant Ivory grips for my Ruger Black Hawk ... the company was something like Art Jewel Grips / Art Jewel Enterprises ? Indian Art Grips ... I don't remember the exact name but aside from making real Indian elephant ivory grips they also tried to develop a grip made from the leftover ivory dust mixed with epoxy resin , cast into the rough shape in moulds and finished .
The fake ivory grips , looked really good , they sent me a set and I fit them to my RBH . I liked them so much I kept the fake ones on the gun and the real ivory stored away .
The only fly in the ointment was the right side and left side didn't look exactly alike ... they looked good but for some reason the "grain" on one side differed from the "grain" on the other.
Also because of the casting process there would be a pin hole in the casting ... Mine had several on the backside and one on the finished side ... these pinholes and miss matched grain might be why they sent them to me and asked me to use them and report back what I thought . They felt like ivory and had a grain (the grain looked like the grain you would see in nice maple wood)
I called and told them I liked them and the gentleman said they were still working out a casting process ... they hated to let all that ivory dust go to waste and would love to use it for something and they were working on a method to get both sides to look the same .
I guess the ivory import ban put an end to these cast from ivory dust grips ... I don't know if they perfected the casting process but smaller grips might have been easier to make ???
The grips in question might be some from the Art Jewel Enterprise Co. or another company .... they did have pin holes and the left and right grips didn't match each other .

Anyone else remember Art Jewel or the company I'm trying to remember ... seems like I bought Sambar Stag from them for knife grips ... any better memories out there?
Gary

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4T5GUY has the key. Look for the grain pattern. Many items sold as ivory are really bone. You can also distinguish mammoth ivory from elephant ivory by the pattern of the grain.

I don't remember the company you mention, but I won a set of grips at End of Trail one year that were marked something like "Ivory-fit Colt SAA". They are quite heavy, but I always assumed they were made of the ivory dust/epoxy resin mix you mentioned. If they have noticeable flaws, I dont remember them. A favored 2nd Gen SAA has worn'em ever since. I'll try to dig'em out and post a pic.

These grips were mentioned above.

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If the larger grips are heavy and dense , as compared to plastic grips , both the front and back resemble the fake ivory Art Jewel grips I had . I'm looking at the 3 holes on the back side ... identical to mine .

The Blackhawk was stolen in 1995 with the fake ivory grips . The gun was recovered in 2015 , I got the gun back but the grips were swapped out for white plastic .
I wish I could have posted a close up showing the different grain patterns on the right and left panels .

Interesting story on these grips .
Gary

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