Great Ways To Keep Your Wyoming Elk Ivory

If you're an elk hunter, you know about the ivories. If not, you're may not be sure what that means.

In the old days, elk used to have tusks that curled out of their mouths, kind of like a wild boar or elephant.

According to National Forest Foundation.org, the tusk of an elk were made up of the same material and have many characteristics of those animals tusks. As elk have evolved over the years, they lost the tusk, but still have two teeth in the same location of the mouth that the tusks would've grown.

You'll find the ivories where the canine teeth of a predator can be found.

This year was my first time harvesting an elk, and taking the ivories was one of the first things that was mentioned that I needed to take from the animal. Luckily my friends Jen and Josh at Dan's Meat Processing, made sure that I had them when I picked up my meat.

The elk ivory has been a very important part of jewelry of Wyomingites for hundreds of years and could be found on the garments, necklaces, rings and other pieces of art.

Needless to say, if you're a hunter, you probably have bags of these teeth. If you haven't ever done anything with them, there's still time.

The first step is to get the teeth cleaned and then polished up. Just like with most things, there are multiple ways to polish them up, and everyone has their favorite way. They way I did it, was how quite a few people told me, in my pocket. Yep, as simple as clean them off, and walk around with a pocket full of change and your elk ivory.

Others, like Wild Man 307 Outdoors, use the blue jean method. Boil the ivories and clean the excess meat off the teeth. Then re-boil for a few more minutes. Your then ready for the blue jean rub method.

Once you're happy with the look, you can have the ivories incorporated into a knife handle, necklace, rings, or other crafty ideas. Just like the ones done by Idaho based silver jewelry maker Autumn Fahnholz, from Hammered In The Mountains crafts.

This video may not be for those with weak stomachs, but you need to know how to remove those ivories. Check out the great Steve Rinella from MeatEater as he takes you through the process.