Dha
 

Hi all, here is another of my "end of the year" piece :) Could someone helps me with the hanlde: is bone or ivory (i hope ivory, but to me seems bone :o ). THank you

Looks like deer antler thats been ground,sanded or otherwise worked down to lose most of its pattern.

So technicaly thats Bone.

Nice dha though!

Spiral

I have trouble myself telling bone from Ivory in a picture but the above makes sense with the brown incursion into the handle. I also agree is is a nice solid looking dha

Hi Spiral and Michael, yes could be, but i had never thought that a deer antler could be of this color!! Thank you

I agree, it is deer antler.

So tecnically it isn't bone but HORN :o))

Flavio I'll explain it to you in your language: e corno di cervo quasi sicuramente. Se levigato per bene perde il tipico colore marrone e le sporgenze.

Thanks, but was already quite clear

Actually, deer antler lacks the keratin structure characteristic of "horn", and is actually closer to "bone". :)

Andrew is correct: antlers are bones, not horns. They are composed of osteoid cells and even have marrow and blood supply.
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.ed...d_antlers.html

Thank you Andrew and Ariel :)

One way to tell ivory from bone and antler is to shine an ultra-violet light on it. Ivory will glow a very bright quite, while anter and bone will only a weak fluorescense (plastice none at all, BTW). It is harder to distiguish under a dark patination, though, and such things as "bright" and "weak" are relative terms that are hard to quantify with known reference standards.

Antler is constructed of bone.

Horn is a keratin structure that grows over bone.

Spiral

Thank you Spiral :) Mark, i have to find an ultra-violet lamp, even if i think that could be antler :o