Hello Dave,
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I have seen unworked "gigi" in Kelantan and Pattani and it doesn't resemble at all the hippo ivory I've seen. Rather it was represented to me as walrus tusk (gigi singa laut). Based on this experience I've always believed that gigi = walrus ivory.
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You don't happen to have a pic of those unworked tusks, have you?
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I've only seen one hilt in Kelantan that I'm fairly confident is hippo...this is based on comparison with photos of Persian khanjar hilts I've seen.
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This contrasts with my experience: I see quite a few Malay and Sumatran keris hilts made from what I and Detlef (and possibly also Thor
) would tentatively assign to being of hippo origin while walrus seems to be quite rare; in Ottoman, Persian and Indian hilts walrus is much more common.
Walrus tusks have a prominent inner core that exhibits a distinct mottled pattern upon staining or developing patina.
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Its been reported that in the 18th and 19th centuries, American whalers sometimes wintered by sailing a loop down into the S. China Sea, following the coast of Vietnam and the Malay Peninsula before turning back east along the N. Borneo coast.
They brought with them mostly whale bone and hippo ivory
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I assume you mean whale and walrus (rather than hippo)?
Are spermwhale tooth also mentioned in those accounts? While these are usually too small for carving the fairly large N Malay keris hilts, they may be the main source for those pieces that are locally identified as dugong.
Regards,
Kai