Many thanks Alan for the above explanation.
On another note, my understanding is that one of the features of 'old' (but not necessarily antique) hilts is to see the hairline cracks on the material. I have seen a lot of new bone hilt carvings and they do not show these cracks.
All the above hilts pictured show marked cracks and I would assume that they would be 'old' as cracks would only appear as they age? . Is this understanding wrong? in other words do new hilts also show cracks?
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