Big THANK YOU to ESEE and Rowen

dogboye

dogboye

Gold Member
Joined
Nov 23, 1999
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7,149
I just received my black ESEE-4 back from Rowen today. I had tried to color the linen scales, ended up soaking the green liners off them. :eek::o

So, long story short, I tried to just get more scales, but Jeff said I had to send it back. So I did, offering several times that I would be more than happy to pay, since I was just dumb. But they fixed the scales up good as new (well, actually, they are new). Under warranty.

Now don't go screwing up your scales, but I wanted to thank ESEE and Rowen publicly. And confess my stupidity, too.

No more trying to darken any scales. It will just have to come naturally, or not at all. I'll "wear" gray linen scales proudly! :)
 
I gotta ask, just to avoid it myself, what the hell did you soak it in, and for how long?
 
Just water.
I put them in late night. Next day, pulled them out and dried them off.

Tried them a while, they were still bleeding on my hands. So I put them in again.

But it WAS just water. I'm not sure what the adhesive was, but what appeared to happen is the liners pulled away from the scales when they shrank as they dried. It appeared. In any case, the liners ended up smaller than the micarta, so there was a a little bit of a recession all the way around the perimeter of the scales.

After that, I wasn't thinking and pulled the liners the rest of the way off, thinking, "fine, now I'll have just plain black, no cool green, and thinner, but that's OK, I deserve it." THEN realized that I now had a knife that the kydex sheath wouldn't retain. DOH! :headslap:

R.A.T.! HELLLLLP......!

Personally, I would not now ever try dying micarta again. Or, at least I wouldn't if it had liners. I'd be afraid that in the hot water that I understand you dye them in, the water would penetrate the liners and end up shrinking them like these did. Don't know WHAT I was thinking at the beginning of this entire flail-ex. I should have thought about the fact that they fiberboard (I think) liners would absorb moisture and dry differently from the micarta. The micarta is obviously a very stable material, being epoxy impregnated like I understand it is. I don't think that is the case with the liners. Certainly I knew they weren't micarta, so I should have thought it through better.

Yeah.... I'm slow like that sometimes. Which is why I was so adamant about paying for the fix. :o
 
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Pictures or it did not happen !

(just kidding ! ESEE and Rowen rocks !)
 
i had a similar thing happen with my izula scales when i dyed them in RIT dye. the liners came off, but the scales still fit on the izula with no problems. just took me a minute to get them to sit right :D
 
I have grey on my rc3 and rc4....now the 3 i use for processing game and the 4 i use just as a camp knife....the 3's are very dark now.....get a little blood on em and see what happens....
 
there are lots of options that do not include removing the scales to darken them:

black magic marker as a temp fix?
oil based leather dye?
alcohol based leather dye?
oil based wood stain?
aniline dye for woodworking?
make a dye out of walnut hulls (wear gloves while taking the husks off the nuts - or you will have dark brown hands)
 
1066vik said:
there are lots of options that do not include removing the scales to darken them:

black magic marker as a temp fix?
Click to expand...

Oooh... don't think so. That's where I started this mess.
oil based leather dye?
Click to expand...
Hmmm... OK, maybe. But I'm betting that would bleed like the black magic marker, which would go right back into this mess.

alcohol based leather dye?
Click to expand...
Hmmm... maybe. Seems maybe less likely to bleed, if the alcohol can carry it... transport it... into the micarta before evaporating. But with micarta.... I dunno.

oil based wood stain?
Click to expand...
If I hadn't already screwed up once, I might consider doing something like this. I've use tung oil on wood scales and had good results.

aniline dye for woodworking?
make a dye out of walnut hulls (wear gloves while taking the husks off the nuts - or you will have dark brown hands)
Click to expand...

Don't have a clue about these.

Bottom line, I'm not gonna try any dying on an ESEE again. Not that I don't think I couldn't figure it out... eventually... but I don't want to end up having to go to a third party to get any more scales, and I will not screw up another set and go back to ESEE for help. That would be downright insulting to them. The gray linen looks good, especially with the green liners. I'm satisfied. Man's gotta know his limitations.
 
drew1095hc said:
I have grey on my rc3 and rc4....now the 3 i use for processing game and the 4 i use just as a camp knife....the 3's are very dark now.....get a little blood on em and see what happens....
Click to expand...

Got my Izula scales dark in two days.
My EDC HEST is also dark.
And I got a beautiful dark RC3, but I think the handle was a black micarta... (kind of gorgeous special edition with the Rat Logo on the handle too)
Hand moisture, rain, blood, oil concure to turn them dark...
 
Never thought of darkening the scales, on my HEST, I only had to handle it a few times before the scales got dark. Even added a bit of my own blood the day I got it when showing it to my bro. My bad for flipping it in my hand like my folder. He laughed, but I now know that the ESEE blades are in fact scary sharp. Give it a few uses, and I think you will be happy.

Lates,

Connor
 
plus if you darken it with your own blood...
don't you become "blood brothers" with your own knife? :)
 
motor oil works quite well, along with sweat blood and tears :D
 
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