Yup, as I said in post #20 and Detlef in #29, this fibrous look is very common.

And it hardly ever is rhino. While there are additional indicators which can lend a hint if you're willing to gamble, one really needs to look at the end-grain (as in post #8) to ascertain any identification.

This is an old fad which still gets purported by dealers to increase sales... :mad:

Regards,
Kai

Marius, i am afraid these gentlemen are correct. Your sewar hilt is not rhino. I posted the defining elements of rhino horn structure in my post #8. It's not simply a matter of what you call hair-like structure. That can be found in a lot of horn, which is basically keratin, the same substance that make up human hair. What you need to see in a hilt to identify it as rhino is these tightly packed tubular structures with a dot in the center of each tube.

Well, I learned something new then. :)

No problem as I did not buy the sewars for having rhino hilts, but because I liked them.

In fact they weren't even advertised as being with rhino hilts. It was my conclusion after seing that hairy/fibrous structure.

Thank you for the very educating information! :)