YouTuber restores 20,000-year-old woolly mammoth tusk
YouTuber and master carpenter Cam Anderson photographed with his 20,000-year-old mammoth tusk. (Cam Anderson, Blacktail Studio.)
Everyone’s got a hobby, some are just cooler than others.
Cam Anderson, who runs Blacktail Studio in Portland, Oregon, specializing in woodwork, custom furniture and more, has a popular YouTube channel in which he shows off his unique creations.
His videos typically garner millions of views fulfilling the needs of carpenters, hobbyists and those looking to scratch that "oddly satisfying" itch.
While most of his videos involve what you’d typically expect from a master carpenter, he recently took on a project that was literally thousands of years in the making: Restoring a 20,000-year-old mammoth tusk.
You read that right.
Speaking with FOX TV Stations on July 19, Anderson calmly reiterated that buying a mammoth tusk was extremely normal.
"I don’t think buying a woolly mammoth tusk is as uncommon as a lot of people do," Anderson explained.
Except in states like California, New Jersey and New York where the transfers of mammoth ivory are illigal.
Anderson purchased the tusk in May 2022 for $7,500 and spent a year drying out the piece just so he could shape and restore it.
"I was so nervous messing this thing up so I just read as much as I could," Anderson said about the long arduous process.
In his video, posted on July 6, Anderson goes through every detail on how he sanded it down, filled in the cracks and brought out it’s incredible and unique color.
He created a custom steel base for the tusk and now it sits in his television room for him to view in all its glory.
For those still asking, "why?" Anderson said "there isn’t anything more to it than I just thought it would be awesome."
His followers certainly agree, as the video has surpassed 2.1 million views as of July 21, 2023
"I feel like people would want to watch this type of restoration," Anderson said. "That was kind of my justification for my wife at least to pay for it."