I have a friend who is in the process of dealing with his elderly father’s possessions since his father is ill and is moving to a nursing facility.
His father used to do ivory carvings, and as a result, has a considerable amount of raw ivory that may be available for purchase for use in pipe sets. I remember him doing carving when I was a kid, so I’m guessing this material is 20 or 30 years old at least.
I haven’t a clue about what builders are looking for as far as raw material for pipe sets, but if anyone is interested, I’d be happy to put you in touch with my friend.
He tells me he’s in the process of taking inventory now, should have a better idea what he has in a couple of weeks, so if you email me, I’ll arrange to get him in touch with you when he’s ready.
Be careful with some antique cue balls. One of the first experiments with plastic was a nitro-cellulous(spelling?) compound used primarily to replace ivory on cue balls. This started as early the as 1870’s.* Unfortunately the early plastic was rather closely related to nitro-glycerine. It looked wonderful, but as it degraded had a tendancy to explode. This is no urban myth. One other tale of nitro plastics was that a New Yorker had an awful suprise at breakfast one day. His dentures were made from the same material. Boom! I wonder if he was eating bangers and mash? :roll: Even as late as the 1930’s playing cards were coated with a similar substance that could be soaked off the cards, skimmed from the water and collected into a rather nasty home made explosive. (Pay no attention to my fascination with explosives!) If you find an ivory cue ball from the 19th century or earlier, I’m sure the price you could fetch for it on the antiques market would get you a fare bit of money.
If you find the nitro ball, call the bombsquad and run.
*Keep an eye on the History channel. Every once in a while they run the episode of Modern Marvels which covers the history of plastic. That’s where the info on exploding teeth and cue balls came from. Who would think plastics were that old!
You can also tell if the ball is Ivoy by rolling it on a table or the floor and seeing if it has gone oval, if its old and still perfectly ball round it more than likely a compo ball, also if inspected carefuly you will see a small black pin dot where the nearve centre of the tusk once lay.
And on high quality ivoy there will most definately be a patinner of criss cross grain in the daylight when turned around.
Hi Guys,
In my opinion there is no need for Ivory to be used on pipes there are other options like buffalo horn~antler and other substitute’s to decorate pipes with the Ivory might be twenty or thirty year old but it still keeps the market for Ivory alive while makers still keep on persisting to put Ivory on pipe’s they certainly dont play any better it might be a old tradition to use Ivory,“so let it be an old tradition and best forgotten.” it’s just not “Hip” any more guy’s.
One could make the same argument for using foreign hardwoods for the actual body of the instrument. There is no need to do so, but the desire is there from some people to have it.
Horn/Antler looks wonderful, btw, for people who are considering new pipes and want some kind of natural fitting for the ferrules. Plus you don’t have the guilt of wondering if the soul of some elephant is out to get you at night. You only have to contend with a smaller animal.
Diony’s,
There are lots of woods you can use for pipes which are not under threat water bufalo and deer ain’t either, the problem is that poaching is still going on in parks in Africa and what for it all comes down to that thing called “Money” what’s been done is done so let’s try and help a “little” I think us humans have done enough damage in this world in the past. there are lots of pipes for sale on the N.P.U I wonder why they dont sell are they a waste of wood or could we recycle them.
I have purchased from these folks before: http://ivoryworksltd.com/
Nice stuff, easy to deal with, everything is legal and documented as necessary. It is a well known fact that real Ivory and Fine silver make a piper play 25% faster and 12.5 % more accurately…heh heh heh
This is no urban myth. One other tale of nitro plastics was that a New Yorker had an awful suprise at breakfast one day. His dentures were made from the same material. Boom! I wonder if he was eating bangers and mash? :roll: Even as late as the 1930’s playing cards were coated with a similar substance that could be soaked off the cards, skimmed from the water and collected into a rather nasty home made explosive. (Pay no attention to my fascination with explosives!) If you find an ivory cue ball from the 19th century or earlier, I’m sure the price you could fetch for it on the antiques market would get you a fare bit of money.
