Wooly Mammoth Ivory

[SlewFootLag]

Just curious,
Has anyone ever heard of wooly mammoth ivory being used for billiard ball production?
That would be somethin' else...

 

[hang-the-9]

Just curious,
Has anyone ever heard of wooly mammoth ivory being used for billiard ball production?
That would be somethin' else...

Yes, I've seen it, my old Joss Limited from the early 90s used it. At least as far as my memory of it holds up. I am pretty sure the description of it in the catalog listed "mamoth ivory".

I have pictures of it somewhere although none are very close up so you could see the inlays very well.

 

[Bob Jewett]

Just curious,
Has anyone ever heard of wooly mammoth ivory being used for billiard ball production?
That would be somethin' else...

There are sites that sell mammoth ivory. It looks like solid pieces would be very, very expensive. I'm guessing that they would also be pre-cracked or brittle. Elephant ivory is a bad material to make billiard balls from as they go out of round, so I'm guessing fossil ivory would not be much better. One site says that you have to cure (dry?) recently uncovered fossil ivory or it will warp after carving.

 

[Ak Guy]

I doubt it.

I have lived in Alaska for 50 years and have never seen a piece of wooly mammoth or mastodon that was not cracked or checked. My wife is 1/4 Alaskan native and we have about a 20" piece that is cracked and checked. I know i could be sawed and pieces used for cue inlays or knife handles, but it has a cool factor so will be left as is and passed on to one of the kids. We have made a couple of 1,000 mile moose hunting trips on the Yukon and Koyukuk rivers and there is a place on the Yukon that has about a 100' muddy bank. As it caves in tusks are often exposed and the local natives tie ropes on them attached to buoys and get them when they fall in the river. Crawling around on that unstable, steep and muddy bank would give me the creeps. Any way I don't think it would make good ball material.

 

[ceebee]

John Parker of Auerbach Custom Cues has used Mammoth Ivory for Cue parts (ferrules, joints rings & so on), for lots of years

It would seem to me that a lot of Mammoth Ivory would have to be uncovered, to make Pool Balls... who knows?

 

[hang-the-9]

oops I did not read about "billiard ball" production, for some reason I glanced over that, but either way, my cue from what I remember had mamoth ivory.

I doubt anyone would use it for balls as the supply would be quite a bit less than regular ivory. You have quite a bit of waste making ivory billiard balls to begin with as they are a bit tough to make the same size and shape consistently. I read somewhere about how much was wasted when they did not meet spec or cracked, and from what I remember it was a pretty larger percentage.