Mammoth Tusk

[kumar]

Hello, 

 

My first post and I am quite a novice. Found this mammoth tusk for sale in Alaska at a dealer. It is about 60 lbs and 100 inches long. 

It is being restored, but the person working had to leave in between. The tip about 8-9inches is covered in resin for restoration work. It is yet to be finished. 

 

Do you think its worth buying it? Any professional restorers in Alaska? How much does it cost to restore it? What would be the resale value on something like this? 

 

Thank you all..

[Kane]

Just FYI: As per forum rules, we do not provide appraisals here. 

[kumar]

3 minutes ago, Kane said:

Just FYI: As per forum rules, we do not provide appraisals here. 

That is ok. Not trying to get an appraisal as such. But maybe information about the partly restoration work that has been done. 

 

Is this what the process looks like? I have been wanting to buy something like this for a while. Just trying to educate myself more. Not much information is available about things like this.

 

A fully restored tusk (picture attached) looks quite different with the polish etc. Does the tusk i mentioned would look even close to the one after polish etc? 

Edited December 5, 2017 by kumar

[Ginkgojerry]

I've lived in Yukon for 25 years, (next to Alaska) and seen a few mammoth tusks. But this one looks a bit odd to me. It could be real but, it just looks small and skinny to me. 

Btw, why would anyone do restoration work or put resin on it ?

I have seen that done but just seems like a way of destroying something ... it's fossil ivory. I can see using binders if it's falling apart but, if not, why contaminate it? My opinion is it's more valuable if the material is pure uncontaminated ivory.

In my experience, tusks that are partial decayed or falling apart get sold to artists for the jewelry trade. Sold by weight and quality. Big tusks are just that ... they are very big. Like 6 to 8 inches in diameter. Maybe it's just the photo but, that one looks short and skinny to me. These things can be the length of your bed. I could be wrong.. just a feeling.

 

[Ginkgojerry]

An example of one of my own jewelry that I bought made from Yukon mammoth ivory and Alberta ammolite fragments. 

[Ginkgojerry]

An example of one of my own jewelry made from Yukon mammoth ivory and Alberta ammolite fragments. 

[Shellseeker]

On 12/4/2017 at 8:19 PM, kumar said:

Is this what the process looks like? I have been wanting to buy something like this for a while. Just trying to educate myself more. Not much information is available about things like this.

I do understand the motivation, but the expertise to stabilize and restore tusks may be beyond the experiences of members of this forum.

The stabilization part, performed by an individual, is well documented on this forum. Techniques to turn fossils crabs, ammonites, trilobites, etc into works of art are frequently discussed in detail in various forum posts.

However, I have not seen the expertise and skills to work on large fossil restoration for commercial purposes discussed very much. I guess that you have to know someone in the business who is willing to educate you.

I just had this fossil restored. It was broken in two and had some stabilization issues. I took it to a professional, who repaired and stabilized it. It is no longer the original. I do not know the techniques he used, but before making my decision, I checked his previous work and references.  That is about all you can do....