Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 February 1887 — Ivory for Knife Handles. [ARTICLE]

Ivory for Knife Handles.

The ivory used for fine table-knives, as well as for other purposes, comes wholly from the great ivory mart of Loudon, and is the tusks of the elephant or of his fossil congener, the mammoth. The ivory fqr knives is sawed by reciprocating saws, fed with water, and is then exposed for several days to the sunlight, under glass, to bleach it. The bandies are weighted by means of a piece of lead wire inside of them, and the hole in which the wire and the tang of the blade are placed is lined with a white cement, to prevent the dark metal from showing through the semi-trausparent ivory. Before the handles receive their final finish they are smoked and a scraper is run over them to detect any slight depressions. They are finished with whiting on soft felt wheels.