Buffalo horn
I always assumed that the Buffalo ferrules/handles, used by Japanese makers are from domestic Asian Buffalo (makes sense). I noticed some buffalo horn suppliers sites also list the availability of African (Cape) Buffalo horn, and was wondering if anyone has any knowledge on the subject? The African Buffalo is not on the endangered species list (yet) but, it's only a matter of time (Oddly, the wild Asian Buffalo IS an endangered species).
John in Boise
I believe it's a cook's moral obligation to add more butter given the chance.~~~Michael Ruhlman
maybe they also have domesticated buffalo , just like cows, pigs etc?Originally Posted by bikehunter
You mean domesticated African Buffalo? I haven't researched it as thoroughly as I'd like (yet), but the info I've found, so far, is that there are few, if any domesticated (Kinda like the difference between African and Indian Elephant, I would guess. Thousands of Indian...very few African). Dunno for sure.
John in Boise
I believe it's a cook's moral obligation to add more butter given the chance.~~~Michael Ruhlman
I have imported some buffalo horn from India, and they claimed it was all Indian 'domestic' buffalo raised for work, and the horn was a by-product. On the other hand, I have seen Indian horn manufacturers looking on the web to buy especially non-black horn, and I did not get the impression that they were limiting their search to India or Vietnam - which seems to be another regular producer. I was always under the impression, that these are also the major producers for the Japanese handle horn. But I don't know anything specifically about African buffalo horn, have never seen it explicitly mentioned in this context.
BTW, if you have addresses of reliable suppliers, I'd be happy to hear about them. I tried getting my hands on white and marbled horn. While I paid the price for these qualities, let's just say the horn I finally received was labeled to show which is white, which marbled, and which black - which was helpful because without the labels I wouldn't have seen the difference....
Stefan
[QUOTE=
BTW, if you have addresses of reliable suppliers, I'd be happy to hear about them. I tried getting my hands on white and marbled horn. While I paid the price for these qualities, let's just say the horn I finally received was labeled to show which is white, which marbled, and which black - which was helpful because without the labels I wouldn't have seen the difference....
Stefan[/QUOTE]
Sorry, Stefan, I'm only interested from an environmentally concerned viewpoint so the only suppliers I'm aware of are those turned up in a Google search for "Cape/African buffalo horn source". Thanks for the reply
John in Boise
I believe it's a cook's moral obligation to add more butter given the chance.~~~Michael Ruhlman
I'll bet most if it's coming from china
In Thailand, there are less than a hundred "wild Asian buffalo" which is listed as endangered species but a few hundred thousand domesticated buffalo. They both look the same but they are different animals, I guess the domesticated buffalo are used for knife handles->one horn to make one knife and left over are used for comb.
also do not forget the marketing value of the phrase "Wild asian/african buffalo" , it does not guarantee authenticity, plus ther eis no way for you and me to actually check if the horn is from a wild animal or domesticated one.
Asian "buffalo" is literally translated to "water cow" they look nothing like buffalo and are mostly used on the farm...
Wikipedia on Water Buffalo
"In 2000, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that there were approximately 158 million water buffalo in the world and that 97% of them (approximately 153 million animals) were in Asia."
Don't worry about it. You'd have to be nuts to use rare, endangered materials, given that the domestic equivalent is so readily available.
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