Mammoth Bark Straight Cigar Holder Divot Tool #9

Mammoth Bark Straight Cigar Holder Divot Tool #9

Manufacturer: N/A

SKU: N/A

Price: $65.00
This item is in stock

This cigar holder divot tool is made from Mammoth Bark, the outer part of a Mammoth's tusk that develops very unusual colors and patterns due to thousands of years in contact with surrounding minerals and soil. Wooly Mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) became extinct toward the end of the Pleistocene Period, about 10,000 years ago, so this piece is at least that old and probably closer to 20,000 years old.

Mammoth tusk has two primary layers, a hard outer layer made of enamel and an inner material made from dentin. Both layers are distinct in this tool. The outer layer is medium tan color, about 1/16" thick, with a very dark brown skin. This skin was the part of the trunk that had been in contact with the soil and developed a very nice crackled finish similar to the Raku pottery of Japan. The inner layer is a very rich brown color and in the cigar cradle area you can easily see the cross-hatched series of lines known as Schreger Lines, named after Bernhard Schreger who first described them in 1800. These lines are only present in elephant or mammoth ivories and are one of the ways to tell real ivory from fake. They can also be used to tell elephant ivory from mammoth ivory since the angles they create are always obtuse (greater than 90 degrees) in elephants and acute (less than 90 degrees) in mammoths. The lines are formed as successive cone-shaped layers of material are added as the tusks grow. The interlocking pattern is like natures own carbon fiber and helps to give ivory its strength.

This tool is approximately 2-5/8" long and 3/4" wide.