??? BUFFALO HORN HANDLE SLABS ???

[Mark W Douglas]

Anyone familiar with the characteristics of Buffalo Horn as handle material? How does it hold up? Does it crack over time like bone handles do or is it more like stag?

TIA,
Mark

 

[Strider]

Buff horn is the cats ass for classic Italians. I have seen it on fixed blades but the horn never has the beautiful color swirls like the springers. You must be very careful with carpet beetles as they love to munch horn. It can also dry out so sometimes a good bath in mineral oil brings back the luster.
Bob

 

[Velitrius]

I've seen a couple of pieces with buff horn. One was a straight razor that was ungodly old. The horn looked as good as new, even though the blade had obviously seen long, hard service. That piece had gold pins too. Pretty neat.

Another was an old stiletto that a friend had, also old and used hard. The blade was pretty much sharpened down to a radio antenna, poor thing. The scales were scratched and the luster was gone, but they were solid and didn't have any cracks.

I had a kit knife that somebody butchered together once too. The buff scales on that thing would have been nice, had somebody known what they were doing with them.

I'd gladly take a knife with buffalo horn scales, as long as it wasn't a filet knife. The stuff do get slippery when wet.