A fully restored mammoth tusk

Mark Knapp

Mark Knapp

Joined
Dec 20, 2009
Messages
4,421
Lots of people ask me what mammoth tusks look like when I get them. Most of the ivory I buy is in small pieces of bark or tusk sections. Those get made into scales for knife making or sold as scrap to jewelry makers. A small percentage of it is in good enough shape to restore the tusks into specimens. Here's what those look like when I get them fresh from the ground.
DSCF2150-XL.jpg


Here's what one looks like fully restored.
DSCF2088-XL.jpg

DSCF2091-XL.jpg


Here's another one.
DSCF1938-L.jpg

You can see that it would be very hard to mistake a mammoth tusk for an elephant tusk either in it's rough form or restored.
 
The colors on the bottom restored tusk are phenomenal. What a specimen. What would the value on that be?
 
Splendid work and very interesting Mark - tell me, is there a strong market for these? In other words, is there a waiting list for finished specimens?
 
BFS said:
The colors on the bottom restored tusk are phenomenal. What a specimen. What would the value on that be?
Click to expand...

Value on the lower one, about $10,000.00 It's medium sized about 80 lb.s Upper one, $15,000.00 to $20,000.00 it weighs about 195 lb.s
 
  • Like
Reactions: BFS
TK Steingass said:
Splendid work and very interesting Mark - tell me, is there a strong market for these? In other words, is there a waiting list for finished specimens?
Click to expand...

Not really, I try not to buy more than I can sell. I can't afford to keep them around here long. Gotta pay bills ya know.

Thanks everybody.
 
Last edited:
Is the marker all mammoth tusks?

I wonder why we don't see mastodon tusks, or tusks from the myriad other ancient elephant-like species.

Now if I were to guess it is because these are not actually fossilized, rather they are preserved in permafrost and thus have not been remineralized as a true fossil would. Mammoth lived on land that was and still is the northern latitudes.

Is that why?
 
Lapedog said:
Is the marker all mammoth tusks?

I wonder why we don't see mastodon tusks, or tusks from the myriad other ancient elephant-like species.

Now if I were to guess it is because these are not actually fossilized, rather they are preserved in permafrost and thus have not been remineralized as a true fossil would. Mammoth lived on land that was and still is the northern latitudes.

Is that why?
Click to expand...

As I understand it, mammoth and mastodon were the only elephant like creatures we (the world) had that were around 20 to 60 thousand years ago, too recent to become mineralized. The others were way older. I know mine are all probably mammoth and not mastodon because the teeth are very distinctive, it's easy to tell a mammoth tooth from a mastodon tooth. Of the thousand teeth I have bought in the last 17 years, none of them have been mastodon teeth, so I have to assume that the same would be true for the tusks. Alaska was primarily mammoth habitat (steppe planes, grass) not mastodon habitat (shrubbery) though there was some.
 
Mark Knapp said:
As I understand it, mammoth and mastodon were the only elephant like creatures we (the world) had that were around 20 to 60 thousand years ago, too recent to become mineralized. The others were way older. I know mine are all probably mammoth and not mastodon because the teeth are very distinctive, it's easy to tell a mammoth tooth from a mastodon tooth. Of the thousand teeth I have bought in the last 17 years, none of them have been mastodon teeth, so I have to assume that the same would be true for the tusks. Alaska was primarily mammoth habitat (steppe planes, grass) not mastodon habitat (shrubbery) though there was some.
Click to expand...

That was my suspicion. That the more southerly habitats of the mastodon weren't as suitable for preservation. I still own zero M. ivory. I have to get some to combine my childhood loves, knives and dinosaurs!
 
Those are all beautiful. All the scales you offer are top notch as well. Too bad I live in CA...
Great work.
 
image seeing one of those animals, times have definitely changed
 
That is beautiful restoration work, Mark. I have some small amt of mammoth tusk ivory and petrified walrus tusk (10.000 yrs old?) from a couple of trips to Alaska many yrs ago. One of these days, I need to have some knife scales made from it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top