The phrase "ivory" gives rise to images of unusual carved ornaments and intricate jewelry, figurines and pipes in the mind. The so-called ivory is made from the tusks and teeth of not only an elephant, but also a rhinoceros, walrus, whale, wild boar, mammoth and mastodon. The ivory of African elephants has a warm, dark hue. Delicate East African ivory looks more matte than its hard and shiny West African counterpart. Asian elephants are made of white, opaque, soft and easy-to-work ivory. Since a moratorium on ivory production was imposed in 1989 to preserve the elephant population, prices have skyrocketed and many fakes have emerged.
1. Use a 15x magnifying glass to look for veins. Turn the carved over and look at the bottom: the intersecting veins appear as hatching. Ivory always has veins, but regular bone, plastic and resin do not.
2. Look at the figure under the light of an ultraviolet lamp. Natural materials such as ivory appear lighter in ultraviolet light, while man-made materials appear darker. Fake ivory will be darker than under normal lighting.
3. Check with heating. Grab a needle or nail with tweezers and hold it over an open fire. Then lean the red-hot object against the most inconspicuous part of the ivory product. If it is real, the red-hot needle will leave almost no trace, only an imperceptible mark, but you will smell a pungent smell, like drilling a tooth, since ivory is a tooth. If the item is fake, the hot needle will leave a small melted dent and you will smell the recognizable scent of burning plastic or resin.
