Ivory Hulu Tajong

[mariusgmioc]

Originally Posted by GIO

Welcome to the Forum, Kayoba84 !
It is seldom possible to give an educated guess from a photo, but I am afraid Marius and David are right. All pieces of this keris are stilistically correct, and seems to be quite new. The material of the perfectly srhaped hilt does not SEEM ivory, but plastic. To be sure, try with a hot needle.

The hot needle test does not work on cetain ivory immitations (bakelite?). I tried it myself on a plastic ivory immitation and it behaved exactly like ivory: was not affected by the hot needle at all.

So, in the end, I believe the best test remains a trained eye... and touch.

Try to look for specific signs of ivory: Schreger lines, minuscule cracks, minute variations of colouring, etc. Remember that ivory is a natural material and it is not perfectly homogeneous. Elephant ivory has also a specific translucence when highly polished (but good plastics also have it).

I suggest you remove the hilt and examine the pesi hole. It is there, inside the hole, where you may try the hot needle test.