Hi Jean,
The ones they have in the keris bugis book I think is probably sperm whale tooth. (Again a guessing game here) In the past, I had bought something that is being sold as dugong tooth. It's certainly does not look like ivory. Looks more like bone. (If it is really dugong's tooth that is - I don't even know if dugongs have large teeth/tusks to tell you the truth) It is very small to have a bugis hilt to be carved out of it, so I had it made into a hilt by gluing it section by section.
G'day Alan,
Yes, I agree that probably everything that look like ivory is labeled as elephant ivory by the general public in the past. This had probably annulled my second point.
But, what about the dots? It really correlates with the dots on hippo ivory. Pattani pekaka hilts (large Jawa Demam) is normally made from this kind of material and it can be very large. It is hard for me to imagine any ivory other than elephant that can provide the size. I certainly have very little experience with this kind of material, but are there any other type of material that have these dots? (I had seen these dots in a picture of a cross section of hippo ivory, but can't find it at the moment)
I have to make clear about the market of gigi ikan and elephant ivory here in Malaysia. The difference is not quite substantial. If we have two similar hilt, one is elephant and one is marine, the marine is gonna be a bit expensive. If we only have elephant, the the price would be pretty much the same with the marine one.
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