Billiard Ball Ivory Identification Help

frank405 said:

Hi folks, apologies for the intrusion from a non billiard player

I have an antique Riley table top billiard table, which I believe to be from the 1920's. I put this up for sale for £50 as I believed it not to be worth anything, but got suspicious when people started asking for pictures of the balls (I tried keeping a straight face typing this).

I removed the item from sale to try and understand what I have. Having read a little further I have since discovered that the balls may be made of ivory and of some value.

Any knowledgeable people able to pass judgement on these?

From what I've read, and comparing them to pictures of other ivory balls, my hunch is that they are indeed ivory.

Appreciate any input :thumbup:

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mikemosconi said:

have you searched the internet for how to determine ivory from plastic and clay composition? I remmeber that there was a hot needle test one can do for ivory- try a search!

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Bob Jewett said:

They don't look like ivory to me, either.

Look for the lines as mentioned above. If you hold the ball in sunlight and turn it, the lines will appear and disappear depending on the angle of the sun and your eye.

Also, if you happen to miscue with an ivory ball, the miscue spot often smells of burnt hair. If you rub a phenolic ball with your thumb very vigorously -- get heat -- you will get a characteristic phenolic smell.

Bob <-- who has miscued many, many times while playing with ivory billiard balls. And sniffed phenolic balls.

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mikemosconi said:

I Have seen ivory balls that look like that - but the dark dot must be on either side of the cue ball for it to be ivory- although that is not a guarantee, it is a starting point. There is a new post on this site in the Main Forum named "Pool Documentary" - at 1:18 of that video he shows Brunswick cue balls that are ivory- they look like yours and he explains the dark dots on those ivory cue balls

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ideologist said:

It's not ivory

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