Hi after reading this post I read the post 'parang betino' and noticed the similar material used in the Indonesian knife; color, darker areas etc.
(for 'our' convenience I attached a pic from that post here)
Perhaps these ivory filipino handles (in general?) were carved from Asian elephant ivory? (are/were there actually any elephants native to Indonesia??)
To be clear; elephant ivory is reckognizable by diamondshapes visible at the crosscut. Whaletusk and other tooth dont show this diamondpattern at the surface of crosscut.
Maybe the Indonesian armsexperts know more???
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