Things to do with ivory

T

Travis Fry

Well-Known Member
I recently had the opportunity to make some knives using elephant ivory for the handles. I’m very much against the poaching of elephants, but this elephant had been dead for 40 years and the ivory was imported way back when it was still legal. Eventually I will make 3-5 more ivory knives but I just moved to Canada for a year, and will not be making knives during that time. These are the last knives I made before I left, and I wanted to do something really special.

All three together:
ivory-1-of-13.jpg


Stainless and damascus:
ivory-7-of-13.jpg


Copper hardware and 1080:
ivory-4-of-13.jpg


All of them have domed pins. This sheath has 8 separate pieces:
ivory-12-of-13.jpg



A few more:
ivory-9-of-13.jpg


ivory-5-of-13.jpg


ivory-13-of-13.jpg
 
Please don't try to take them across the border, customs will seize them so fast it will make your head spin. Great looking knives by the way.
 
No worries Brad, these stayed behind in TX and are in the hands of a happy customer. He got them to give away to guides and clients and whatnot, but just told me last week he's having a hard time letting them go. One of the better compliments I've recieved!
 
Nice looking knives .. I too just made a knife using damascus and Ivory .. It is a bit challanging using that stuff.. Nice job all around !
 
Travis,
Fine looking knives, I really like the shape of the one at the bottom of the pic.

The Ivory issue is one each maker has to come to terms with. It's now been illegal to import Ivory for long enough that it can be properly aged/seasoned and still be illegal? I would like future generations to be able to see these fine animals in the wild, Not just in zoo's etc.

Also having a Rhino as my logo is out of love for these magnificent animals and my wife and I have adopted/sponsor a young female orphan rhino (Solio) "from Poaching" that is cared for by a great group of people that find sick and abandoned, Elephants & Rhino's and care for them and when possible, return them to the wild.

After your statement about being against Elephant poaching I thought you and others may be interested in the conservation work these folks do? http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
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Thanks guys. The bigger damascus and the 1080 with copper are my two most popular designs. The smaller one at the bottom is a new one for me; I sketched the concept drawing during a budget meeting at work.

I'm pretty sad to be away from knife making, but it HAS freed up a lot of time. My family sees more of me, and my dog gets to go on more walks. I started running again, am learning about how to safely identify wild mushrooms for gathering and consumption, get to spend time hiking in the mountains, etc. Admittedly, a lot of this is more related to not having a house to remodel rather than just not making knives, but my observatin is that the kind of folks who take making knives seriously are also the kind of folks who can find plenty of other things to be interested in.
 
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