Bone slabs.

[greenrivers]

Afternoon guys. I have just recently purchased a Benchmade Bone Collecter, and although I like the wood pannels, I plan on "personalising" it with my own. I have worked with wood ,antler and ivory, but never bone and I believe that is what will go on the knife. As many of you have done your own, I wonder if you could offer advise working with bone slabs such as aging the bone first and coloring it later. Pictures would be outstanding. Thanks in advance.

[Joel]

I've never worked with undyed bone, but the actual coloring of it doesn't appear to be much different than working with antler.  Preparing the bone is more complicated though; depending on your source of the material and how clean it is.  Fresh bone should be boiled in water and a few drops of soap for at least 10 minutes; three different times.  Adding a few drops of bleach is better, but you'd have to boil it outside.  After boiling, the bone should be allowed to dry for at least a week at a warm temperature.  most of the brown coloring agents  I've seen revolve around using potassium permangate,  analine(alcohol based) leather dye, very strong tea or coffee etc.  Other's suggest using food dyes/hot water baths.  The main problem seems to stem from the fact that the bone doesn't take dyes evenly due to density, so it's necessary to keep swabbing those areas that are too light.  I had the same thing happen to me with moose antler and leather dye.  Perhaps someone with more personal experience in this will post.

[greenrivers]

Thank you for the responce Joel. I picked up the bone at a pet store and it looked as though it had been cooked (at least partly) and still had a bit of tissue on it. It is now hung for the birds to clean. You mentioned cooking three times? Is this for bleaching?
I made a set of grips for a single action handgun from bleached moose antler that are some of my favorites. That has inspired me to use bone on the knife.

[Joel]

I've looked at those pet store bones and they look reasonably clean.  The boil three times seems to be to make sure all the fat is removed.  Any left in the bone will show up when you go to dye it.  Chlorine is the bleaching agent but make sure it's done outside and only use a few drops.  From what I've read, using too much results in the bone splitting as it's drying...it may do so anyway.  To stabilize bone, an old trick I read about years ago is to soak it in baby oil for about a week.

[greenrivers]

That explains a great deal. Fat would keep the dye from penetrating. I read recently of soaking ivory in warmed mineral oil for the same reason. Sounds like I have my start. Thanks for the tips.

[DeckH]

A while back someone on this forum asked about bone scales.  I have used bone on 2 locked back folders I made from scratch.. I suggested the use of pet supply store dog bones(actually cow bones, ha).   It is clean.  All you have to do is select the best layout for the scales and avoid the pithy areas.   Once they are sanded and buffed they look great and take on a patina that almost looks like ivory.    Of course you can always dye them with leather dye or tea.  However, you then have to wait until they are  very dry or you will have problems later.  Good luck   

[Bugflipper]

You can add 1/2 cup of arm and hammer washing powders to a gallon of water and boil 10 minutes for a degreaser. It also turns any marrow, tendons and meat left over into jelly. Scrub after with a scouring pad or brush and baking soda in a paste, another degreaser. Do the washing powder again. Then dissolve some salt in water and allow to soak overnight. That will leach out any remaining oils and blood. Soak in peroxide until level of whiteness desired is obtained. Let dry for a couple weeks.
 For dyeing and stabilizing vacuum works the best. For dyes a mortar and pestle and whatever color you want http://www.pioneerthinking.com/crafts/crafts-basics/naturaldyes.html in a little bit of water works pretty good. Let dry for a couple of weeks.
 I like clear casting resin diluted with mineral spirits to stabilize. Just leave it soaking until the bubbles stop coming out. Let dry for a week.
 Or you could save a lot of time by buying stabilized bone.    http://www.giraffebone.co.za/web/products.asp?category=57
$20 is a bargain if you are not going to do a lot of scales. BTW cow bone is not very dense compared to other animals. That translates to being weaker. It would be fine for a light use knife but I wouldn't want to use it on a knife that was going to see much more than skinning or slicing. A fellow might get by with boiling it in a cup of white vinegar to a gallon of water to soften it if it was going to see medium use. It remains flexible when dry and is less likely to crack at the rivets. Usually a fast running animal will have denser bones than a slow moving one.

[Dand]

Interesting discussion to follow.  I have wondered why giraffe and camel bone are so popular when you look at some knife makers. I've also wondered at the sources - where do the suppliers get it?


If fast running animals have dense bone, would American antelope have big enough bones to work with?


Makes me want to check out caribou bone next time I get one.  They do a lot of walking and some running.

[Bugflipper]

The speed is just their top speed. To make a comparison lets say a buffalo bull and a holstein bull. The buffalo can run 35 mph plus. The holstein 7-9 mph. At 35 mph if the buffalo had the holstein's bone density and stepped on a rock wrong his ankle would shatter. Most big game animals can run 35 mph or over if they have to.
BTW, it wasn't my intention to nock anyone using a cow bone. Most folks never use a knife hard enough to worry about it.


 I never had a problem with not having enough material using antelope. You should be fine. The humerus and femur need to be trimmed down a bit for the average fellows hand (when doing a full tang riveted). The radius and tibia are about right for a skinner or caper. Sometimes I had to cheat and just cut down the center, grind the voids flat and not remove any material on the exterior. With rat tails the radius and tibia are just about the perfect size for 4 or 5" blade hunting knives.

[greenrivers]

There has been a lot of good information for making these slabs. Please continue. The information is very hard to find elsware and tried products made by the end users are the ultimate test.
 

[gcrank1]

FWIW, years ago I acquired one of those old carving knives that you often see at flea markets, etc., with a bone or antler handle that looked like it had layed outside in the sun and rain for a long time. it was fairly rusty, but cleaned up decently (and was stamped Sheffield) and I almost just broke the handle off to redo, but then I decided to scrape down that weathered old handle to see where I might hit solid material. The top surface came off pretty quickly, and once I hit denser stuff I went to my drill press mounted rotary wheel. I ended up with a good coffin shaped solid, but dry handle. Baby oil was sucked up, and it took a few evenings of rubbing some in, but that handle is the nicest deep golden brown, honest aged look that you can imagine.
I made it into a dag, and the cut off tip became a patch knife for a good friend. The steel is magnificent too.
I mention this because Ive become fond of using finishes that enhance the natural grains and material, rather than staining to something else. Sometimes some blending of colors is needed, though, and your preferences may not be mine. When needed, I like alcohol based leather dyes.