Take your best guess....

[fishhuntcutwood]

....As to what this is.

If you know what it is, you'll know right away; as there's no doubt. These are pretty unique.

It's 10' long and is a piece of Alaskan art. It's not wood. You'll see them hanging in museums. If I give too much more away, it'll make it easy, but it may already be easy as it is.

This is my newest one, and nicest one I've had. The good lookin' girl in the pic is 5'8" for reference.

(Don't mind the stack of beer bottles on the sink. Those are destined for recycling. Here in MI, those are .10 ea!)

 

[Paul B]

no idea, some sort of whale body part?

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Whale baleen bone I think... Or jaw... Would be considered a type of scrimshaw I would imagine... Leaning toward jaw bone.
Now I am leaning toward the baleen ... Gosh I think that is too small for a jaw bone...
I'll go with scrimshaw on baleen....... Gawd I have been out of the loop for so long on these things..

 

[stig]

It's baleen.
Can't say what species of whale it is from, but I can tell from the picture that it is definitely not from a sperm whale.

 

[SkwerI]

You gotta tell us more about the 5'8" cutie

 

[woodworkingboy]

If that thing was found far inland from the sea, and wasn't vegetable matter, it could have some scary implications.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Is it the tusk of a Narwhale?

 

[fishhuntcutwood]

no idea, some sort of whale body part?

Whale baleen bone I think..

I figured it'd be one of the West Coast guys to get it. Yep, baleen from a gray whale. I just got it in from Anchorage yesterday. I had one before, about a 6'er, but it was given to me by a buddy in Kodiak and in pretty ratty condition. It ended up falling apart, and I "retired" it to the depths. I've been looking to get a new one, and my best friend in Kodiak was in Anchorage last week so he did some shopping for me.

For those that aren't familiar with it, it's the boney plate along the top of each side of a whale's mouth. It's actually like a big fingernail, is more like hair than bone. In fact, hairs peel off the bottom, and hang down to the lower jaw. This is the whale's filter through which they eat krill, shrimp, whaterver. The cool thing about these things is that they keep growing!! Even off the whale, I hang it on my wall, and 10,15,20 years from now, it will be slightly longer (thought not enough to really tell) but the hairs will get noticably longer, and can get up to a foot or more in length. That's why if you see one hanging somewhere with very long hair it's considered "museum" quality because it's been hanging and undisturbed for so many years.

This is the best one I've seen in a long time, and the best one I've ever had of my own.

 

[fishhuntcutwood]

You gotta tell us more about the 5'8" cutie

 

[lumberjack]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baleen

Intereseting!

 

[stig]

I figured it'd be one of the West Coast guys to get it.

I live right in the middle of Zealand, not on the west coast.

So, nobody swallowed my spermwhale bait. I sorta figured you guys would be too smart for that to work.

 

[Che]

I'm having trouble picturing how this fits on a whale's mouth. Is this the dark horizontal piece in the following picture, and the 'hair' is the stuff hanging vertical. OR....is this one of the verticle pieces?

I'm curious, how much Alaskan nature stuff did you bring with you? I remember your old pics of your living room (with the very cool glass fishing net floats and whale vertebrae)...you probably had a truckload it seems. True treasures.

 

[sawinredneck]

I'm with Brian on this, we need more pics of the gal!!

 

[sotc]

here ya go che

 

[JamesTX]

The cool thing about these things is that they keep growing!! Even off the whale, I hang it on my wall, and 10,15,20 years from now, it will be slightly longer (thought not enough to really tell) but the hairs will get noticably longer, and can get up to a foot or more in length.

How does that work - isn't there a conservation of energy thing going on somewhere?

 

[MasterBlaster]

Yea, what's up with that?

 

[lumberjack]

After a human dies, the hair and fingers appear to grow, but they don't grow so much as the flesh around them shrinks due to dehydration.

I figure something simlar happens with the "bone," and as it ages more of the hairs fall and get longer, "growing."

 

[MasterBlaster]

Wow Carl, no shit - really? I never heard that before. :roll:

I was referring to the "10, 15, 20 years part," Captain Obvious.

 

[Thor's Hammer]

You gotta tell us more about the 5'8" cutie

Roger that. What piece of art?

 

[fishhuntcutwood]

After a human dies, the hair and fingers appear to grow, but they don't grow so much as the flesh around them shrinks due to dehydration.

I figure something simlar happens with the "bone," and as it ages more of the hairs fall and get longer, "growing."

Yep, the "hair" keeps peeling off, and hanging lower. It dries out and hangs lower. You have to keep these oiled every so often so they don't dry out too quickly and split. Kinda like stabilizing wood or drying wood properly so it won't crack. This thing has been in storage, sealed in plastic for several years, so I need to get it oiled up toot sweet so it won't start cracking now.

 

[fishhuntcutwood]

I was referring to the "10, 15, 20 years part," Captain Obvious.

My buddy who bought it and shipped it for me hadn't heard that either. The dude at the store told him. But he went home and looked at his on the wall, and then actually dug up a pic from several years ago, and sure as shootin' the hair was longer than it had been then. He'd just not noticed it getting longer.

 

[Al Smith]

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't some of the native peoples of Alaska use whalebone for building their temporary shelters ? As well as staves for their kayaks and what ever those big open boats where called . Kinda tough to find wood in some of those areas .

 

[fishhuntcutwood]

I'm having trouble picturing how this fits on a whale's mouth. Is this the dark horizontal piece in the following picture, and the 'hair' is the stuff hanging vertical. OR....is this one of the verticle pieces?

I'm curious, how much Alaskan nature stuff did you bring with you? I remember your old pics of your living room (with the very cool glass fishing net floats and whale vertebrae)...you probably had a truckload it seems. True treasures.

Yeah, I've got ribs, verterbrae, and I had a jaw for a while but it was just too stupid to move around. I kept it in my yard in Kodiak.

Here's an illustration of the baleen.

And then on the whale-

 

[Che]

So it's one of these 'hair' pieces that I circled? Sorry if I'm being dense.

Carl, I remember hearing the fingernail growth explanation on CSI in one of its earlier shows. Good to know.

 

[fishhuntcutwood]

Nope Che, I've got the whole thing that goes along the roof of the mouth from back to front.

See the yellowish/white in the whale's mouth? That's the "hair" hanging off the plate.

Give me a couple of weeks to get it hung on the wall, and you'll see it better.

In the original pic, what she's holding vertically, goes horizontally in the whale's mouth. The black is the boney plate itself.