Well,
I put this under Trophy rooms and it is getting zero replies, so I thought that I would try here. I have a collection of large warthog tusks which was intended to create a wall rack for my bows. However, to date I have been less than inspired by the ideas that I have come up with. Does anyone have pictures or creative ideas for the use of these tusks around the house, or more to the point in the trophy room?
Thanks
Steve

Problem is they split with time
Whatever you use them for fill the root canals with epoxy.
I have made hat racks, walking stick handles, stands to hold Ostrich eggs with them.

Take a look at some displays on the
trophy room thread.

George

Yeah..so I have a pile too and you have a great idea to hang bows
So..as was stated...fill with epoxy or they will split.
I have something like 10-15 upper tusks in a basket. You have a good idea. I could,see using a wood peg and before epoxy is dry putting it on the peg

quote:

Originally posted by ALF:
Problem is they split with time
Whatever you use them for fill the root canals with epoxy.
I have made hat racks, walking stick handles, stands to hold Ostrich eggs with them.

Never had any split on me and one which is almost 12" long (picked up) and in its natural state, has been lying on the coffee table for at least 15 years.

Hippo tusks are a different story - none of mine have survived (all split in half) and no, I had not epoxied them and I should have thought better and submerged them in water for a few days a year as I have been doing with my ivory.

they make cool drawer/cabinet pulls

Door handles

front sight beads .. or filler for a bolt handle with a hole in it.

quote:

Originally posted by fulvio:

quote:

Originally posted by ALF:
Problem is they split with time
Whatever you use them for fill the root canals with epoxy.
I have made hat racks, walking stick handles, stands to hold Ostrich eggs with them.

Never had any split on me and one which is almost 12" long (picked up) and in its natural state, has been lying on the coffee table for at least 15 years.

Hippo tusks are a different story - none of mine have survived (all split in half) and no, I had not epoxied them and I should have thought better and submerged them in water for a few days a year as I have been doing with my ivory.

Wart hog tusks are ivory, and hippo tusks are exactly the same a human teeth! The hippo tusks have dentine on the outside, and the material inside is soft and when the moisture goes away it shrinks but the dentine can't so it cracks, and sometimes will break into several pieces. I have a vey large pair that both received cracking, but in different ways. the left tusk split length wise into two equal sides, while the other one blew up like grenade shrapnel. I've never had a problem with warthog tusks, and I have several some more than twenty five years old with nothing done to them.

I was told too late that the nerve cavity needed to be filled with a glue compound but I think the best way to make the stay to get a taxidermist to fill the cavity with any compound that will fill the cavity, and encase both in a block of clear plastic mounted of a wooden base to display them on a shelf.
Too late for mine, but that may be a setup taxidermists could take up.

………………………………………………….

I have quite a few sets of upper tusks and none have cracked, including a 14.5" pair from a warthog I took in Namibia in 2001. I gave them a soak in glycerine every couple of years. a None have cracked. None of them had the nerve cavity filled.

The lower tusks on warthog are a different story. I always fill the cavity with epoxy and soak them in glycerine. This keeps them from splitting but they still exhibit some signs of trying to split(sharp edged cracks).

I think that warthog tusks make great bottle openers and cork-screw handles.

I have one that is the handle for a large magnifying glass.

Maybe handles for a knife & fork meat carving set?

I've seen small ones made into key chains.

Get a good knife maker to use them.

I shot a wartie back when the country used to be called South West Africa. It was dusk and as we walked up to it we noticed that one tusk was normal and the other was off at right angles. Most interesting.

I kept the tusks and years later a friend came up to me and told me that his knife making friend in Manitoba wanted to make a knife with a warthog tusk. If I would give them the two tusks the guy would make two knives and give me one.

Sounded like a hell of a good deal to me. So I handed over the ivory.

Many months later my friend wrote me a letter telling me that the one tusk was flawed and could not be made into a knife. And that it was too bad …

?????????????????????????? How did I do on that deal ??? Ha! Ha!