What is the difference between ivory and bone

The fake products are made of cheap plastics or other materials that are similar to ivory and bone. You should be able to differentiate between the fake of the originals as well as to differentiate between the ivory and the bone. Ivory is dead matter like nails and hair. It comes from the teeth and fangs of mammals. The most popular ivory is that which comes from the tusks of elephants. The teeth of seals are also considered a good ivory. Another type of real ivory comes from hippos, mammoths, wild boar and mastodon.

The ivory obtained from Asian elephants is much more white and dense than the tusks of African elephants. Asian ivory is much softer. The bone will always have pores on the surface and these pores look black or brown. The pores are the result of the blood vessels that run through them.

They are not visible to the naked eye. The ivory obtained from the Asiatic elephants are much white denser and whiter than the African elephant tusks. The Asiatic ivory is much softer and hence carvings can be made intricately on these. Bone will always have minute pores on the surface and these pores appear as black or brown. The pores are the result of the minute blood vessels which once ran through these bones.

These may not be visible to the naked eye. You will have to use a magnifying glass for the purpose. If you are looking at ivory, you will notice that instead of pores, there will be lines on the material. The lines can be cross hatched or even in circular rings. Fake ivory will have bone or powdered ivory on it. The hot pin test can be used to identify fake and synthetic ivory.

In this test, a person will heat a pin to red hot and try to pierce it into the ivory. If it is not real, the pin will pierce through the ivory. So using this simple test you can identify real ivory. While if you expose bone to excess heat it will smoke out. Ivory is harder than bone and hence it is not that easy to make a scratch on a piece of ivory as you can make on bone. Ivory, if broken can be glued together easily. But if it scatters to pieces, gluing back may not be possible. It is easy to glue broken ivory because of the smooth and shiny texture.

But bone is very dry and coarse looking. So it is not possible to glue broken bones and the grooves and ridges can be noticed very easily. Aside from its anatomical importance, bone is also used to create and manufacture artworks. In the early years, bone carving became prominent among artisans. Bones are also used to create faux ivory. Firstly, ivory is a rigid, creamy-white substance from the tusks of elephants, walruses, mammoths and other mammals. Meanwhile, bone is a dense connective tissue that constitutes the skeletal system of most vertebrates.

Just like hair and nails, ivory is made up of dead cells. Bone, by contrast, has brown or black minute pores which are residues of blood vessels that flowed through the bone.

Since the pores are minuscule, they are only visible under a magnifying glass or a microscope. The surface of ivory, on the other hand, is marked by fine lines that are either in circular rings or cross-hatched lines.

In terms of rigidity, ivory is harder than bone and it is more resistant to scratches. Because of its denser components, ivory typically weighs more than bone. Ivory is also shiny and smooth, while bone is dry and rough. Unlike bone, ivory can be glued together after breaking into big pieces. Home House Difference between Ivory and Bone.