mastodon grips?

[e_jb_fink]

Ive seen the mastodon grips listed on ebay, they look great but some of them warn against alot of usage leading to cracking, anyne bought and used them? They cost 185.00 bucks, my guns dont collect, dust they get exercised. Wast of money?

[Deacon Aegis]

e_jb_fink,
I used to build knives (one of the reasons I started grinding on 1911 frames with a smidgeon of confidence that I wouldn't mess it up too badly) . The scoop on the mammoth ivory that I would only rarely use in knife making is that the ivory itself is not very resiliant to shock. We would impegnate the ivory with polymer if we wanted them to last, however that treatment cannot be removed from the ivory and reduces the value of the ivory. That type of grip is best left on firearms destined as show pieces more than usable as field pieces. Depending on the density, fracture errarta, and granularity of the sample of ivory, some ivory may make it through a few shooting sessions before you start noticing flaking and pealing of the material, other samples could last months before the started to deteriorate. A few may splinter into shards and powder in one shooting session, although I doubt the grip carver would have let such delicate ivory as that through.