Buffalo Horn question

[coyote711]

The red is a dye that doesn't go very deep. This batch of red buffed almost completely out by the time the knives were in finishing. Thus, they renamed them "dusk" as they were generally a little lighter and more chocolate colored than the pitch black.

Thanks for the info, Mike. Looking forward to seeing it in person!

Rick, that black polished buffalo horn of yours is absolutely gorgeous! Of course I've always thought you could take a picture of a knife with ..... say, "dried dog turd handles" and it would come out looking great.

 

[quattromori]

I live in temperate weather latitude and Mediterranean area; that means my knives are usually not exposed to much cold, while they could get some heat in summer.
I live a few miles from the sea, so they get some humidity too (although not salted seawater breeze - don't know the specific word to describe it).
I never used my buffalo horn knife for outdoor or trekking, and I try to keep my knife as clean and dry as I can.
So far, the horn shows no real sign of use. The color might have changed a bit over time, but I can't really tell. The grip on my buffalo horn is pretty good, and I have nothing to complain about it.
As for grip, I may be considered a fool, but I prefer the grip of smooth handles to jigged handles. I know this could be a matter of habit though.
From what I've seen in Rick's pic, GEC's buffalo horn looks very nice and properly treated.
The #68 does look fine in buffalo horn; personally, I would surely go for the black horn instead of the dusk horn. Might even prefer it to ebony...

Fausto

 

[Will Power]

My view is clouded by some Laguoiles I had a few years back, not cheap but not that expensive either.

The bovine horn on these all shrank a lot, peeled even. It appears more fragile than bone so watch out for dropping it! OK 3 out of 3 knives could be just bad luck, but the French are experienced knife-makers and have used horn for a long while. It's true I live in a low humidity environment and this must contribute, but no other knives have shown such degredation. Oddly enough I have a Chinese made Schrade 3 OT lockback, a small knife in Black Buffalo. When I got it there was some blistering around the pins. After carrying it a while and polishing it with Beeswax it settled down and has shown no shrink or peeling at all.

Still feel wary of horn though.

Probably will opt for the acrylic or ebony Tidioute, fancied the look of that Red Buffalo when I saw pictures of the slices but if it is a brown colour, i wouldn't go for it myself.

 

[knifeswapper]

Most horns have to be cured for an extended amount of time. While they are green they will shrink and curl both to some extent. I always keep a hundred or so sets of buffalo horn in a couple different sizes in my garage to suffer the heat and the cold before shipping them to a maker. GEC is a "just in time" maker in that they do not want / need to stock many components for very long before assembly to avoid large expensive inventories. I think early on they were getting green horn as I saw some movement in it; and they stopped using their own horn for a good long time. I think now they have found a supplier that cures it before delivery. This solves both the inventory and the green horn problem for them. It costs a little more, but is ready to go when it hits the dock.

 

[biglmbass]

I recently picked up a GEC in polished buffalo horn. The scales look great, and they don't feel as slippery in the hand as smooth synthetics. My only minor complaint is that the scales feel like they've settled ever so slightly; you can just feel the edges of the bolsters and liners

Rick,

I had three of the Geppettos in buff horn that I returned for the same reason. Conversely, I have a pair of GEC 65s in horn that are perfect. I think it's a great looking material and looks super classy when the scales haven't shrunk back from the liners. I remain leery of it and prefer to see pics before buying.

 

[Humppa]

Hi guys!

Buffalo Horn is quiet nice handle material I think. I got a Schrade Whittler with that material.

Til now the knife didn´t get very much use. But I like the horn. It seems to be very nice over all.

Kind regards