Ivory Mounts

Elmek · Post by **Elmek** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 3:30 am

Here I am fresh back from hols and log on to find this forum seems to be in its death throws with hardly any posts, members conspicuous by their absence and nothing controversial

Lets see if the balance can be addresed

Following on from the recent discussions on ivory / cites how many have pipes with ivory on them. My own half set is ebony, brass and imitation ivory

Are there any makers with stocks of ivory or customers who would have their sets mounted with it - will leave this one off

Hans-Joerg · Post by **Hans-Joerg** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 5:22 am

I do most defintely prefer it to f...ing plastic (euphemistically called "good quality imitation ivory"). Visible non-natural things have nothing to do ("nichts zu suchen") on my pipes (in addition, any production of plastic is environmentally detrimental). On the other hand, the usage of ivory "isn´t good for elephants". I then tried other natural materials:

antler - no way cause very thin hard outer layer and massiv poofy, spongy inside

bone - possible, but a lot of work because of the small measurements (for the bigger trims you have to superglue pieces)

tagua nut - not that good cause even polished they look rather "dead" and they are hollow inside and quite often they are too small.

horn - the colour is not my cup of tea so threfore I never tried it

boxwood - most posibly the only reasonable alternative. Nice surface and no size-limitations

BTW - I ordered regs from Andreas and Jens wrote me: "Everything O. K. - the Mammoth is at the butcher´s already.

Cheers,
Hans

Gabriel · Post by **Gabriel** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 5:47 am

I vote for boxwood mounts as long as the main parts of the set aren't made from boxwood. Then mammoth ivory's good.

lordofthestrings · Post by **lordofthestrings** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 1:46 pm

I voted wood- box or maple or another good contrasting wood. I like the look of blackwood pipes with bloodwood mounts- have seen SSPs like this. I think it's be cool to have a super "ou nautral" set of all wood, no metal (maybe a nightmare to maintain/build) but would be cool.

But there's jsut something really 'romantic' to me about an ivory mounted set. I can't place my finger on it. I like to use Ivory nuts or saddles on violins, and have an bow with an Ivory frog, and its just a mind set thing. Not "superior" or anything, just like the thought of having something with ivory (except an elephant)

KevinCorkery · Post by **KevinCorkery** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 3:14 pm

http://www.cuecomponents.com/elivco.html

This is a reasonable place to buy the ivory. Joe will send any size required. My maker was happy to mount the real deal, I supplied the raw material.

Must be inside the USA though.

lordofthestrings · Post by **lordofthestrings** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 3:16 pm

Thats very cool Kevin! May I ask who made your pipes? Are there pictures of them out there?

billh · Post by **billh** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 4:53 pm

KevinCorkery wrote:http://www.cuecomponents.com/elivco.html

This is a reasonable place to buy the ivory. Joe will send any size required. My maker was happy to mount the real deal, I supplied the raw material.

Must be inside the USA though.

Be warned, there are restrictions regarding interstate commerce of ivory between some US states as well (California for instance, but there are others). Admittedly it's unlikely that these will be enforced for personal effects, but resale of the instrument could be affected.

Bill

CrackPiper · Post by **CrackPiper** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 9:06 pm

wood...

boxwood on mine with no attempt to make it look like ivory...elephants don't live in Ireland (or Scotland), except at the zoo, and they don't like it when you shoot their animals (trust me) so there...Ivory is for suckers. And plastic looks like plastic up close so no dice there either...that being said the I had my GHBs mounted with the OLD plastic that turns orange with age because I wanted my set to look like all the old timers in my band...it does now...took 20 years, and they're all dead, and my GHBs are stuck in the closet (with R. Kelly and that midget...and if you haven't watched that yet, got to youtube, it f'n hilarious!!!), so...where was I? Not sure...had a bit too much to drink and I'm waiting on my chanter to come back from the reedmaker (Jim Schaefer) so I'm bored and I miss it.

ta

mq

sturob · Post by **sturob** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 9:15 pm

well . . . come now . . . you can't really make the elephants-don't-live-there argument because neither blackwood nor ebony nor cocus trees do either . . . but trade with Africa, Asia, and even the New World predates the uilleann pipes.

I think ivory is pretty easy on the eyes. Mammoth actually a little more than elephant ivory, but that's because it can have other hues. I don't think I'd order an elephant-ivory-mounted set of pipes these days for elephantarian reasons and practical ones. I've got a full-elephant-ivory set of highland pipes I've smuggled into and out of Canada before but I don't think I'll try that again.

Timber makes a nice mount too. I know exactly the color of plastic CrackPiper/mq's talking about (oh, those 1950s-1960s Hendersons) but it's never been my thing.

Stuart

CrackPiper · Post by **CrackPiper** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 8:53 am

...OK...fair enough...but I still say ivory's for suckers...it's the piping equivalent of bling...that being said, I've always thought it'd be cool to have a set mounted with something really out there...like amber or red coral...or have a bag made from human skin

...kidding on that...

mq

Elmek · Post by **Elmek** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 9:01 am

So 'crack' what you are saying is that if someone offered you an original Egan, Coyne or Taylor for free you would have to turn it down due to the ivory

I think not

CrackPiper · Post by **CrackPiper** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 7:29 pm

...getting something for free, especially an historically important set (such of as you speak) is not the same thing as actively persuing something like ivory...even mammoth ivory. If there was a dude out there offering me a solid platinum necklace of Don "magic" Juan encrusted with diamonds and surrounded by the words "Pimpin 4 Life" I'd take it...so would you...because it's valuable and it's free.

Of course, such a set belongs in the hands of a better piper than me, so I'd turn it down on those grounds rather than the ivory (except that I'm always broke so...I'd sell it actually). I'm going to just stick with my marshmallow looking set (that I love) and dream of a B nat set for sometime in the future (still no ivory)

mq

uilleannfinlander · Post by **uilleannfinlander** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 12:51 am

uilleannfinlander wrote:

full size

My boxwooden fullset
Drones and regs. mounts antler, chanter+top-piece mounts reindeerantler

stew · Post by **stew** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 6:04 am

You just have to feel so sad for these simple soles that some how believe there pipes with ivory on are going to look and sound superior to other pipers sets that dont have any on theres,

where do these poor soles get there medication from to get them to this state of mind? there are plenty of materials and woods to ornate pipes with today, if you look at history, the damage we did to the whale, some countries are still hunting and killing them even today! & if given the opportunity would hunt them to extinction, just unbelievable,

its time people started taking responsibility for there own personal & selfish attitudes & actions and give some respect to what lives and walks on-upon this earth, maybe a thought to what you are leaving behind for your kids and future generations, because it ain't looking to good so far for what they've got coming, as for traditional pipemaking, thats for the fantasizer.

all the best.

carel · Post by **carel** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 6:31 am

My new C Chanter has no mounts
its plain ebony
and it plays fine although I would like to have some white stuff or boxwood
on it. like the D chanter (both mr van Daal)

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