Covers Too Dark

black mamba

black mamba

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Joined
Oct 21, 2009
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Can dark bone covers be lightened? Say from dark brown to tan, or from deep blue to sky blue.
If so, how can it be done, what would you use? Thanks!
 
If I recall correctly, cudgee cudgee experimented with that in the Guardians thread. I don't remember the specifics but I think it was a relatively lengthy process to achieve his desired result. I'll see if I can find the posts.
 
Pàdruig said:
If I recall correctly, cudgee cudgee experimented with that in the Guardians thread. I don't remember the specifics but I think it was a relatively lengthy process to achieve his desired result. I'll see if I can find the posts.
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He did indeed :) It was quite a long experiment, but a very worthwhile one I think :) Good job cudgee cudgee :thumbsup:
 
I thought I read somewhere that rubbing the bone covers with denatured alcohol would remove some of the dye. How much dye I couldn't begin to say, especially since I haven't tried it myself.
 
From the Guardians Thread by cudgee cudgee 9 October 2021 page 2632. The pictures have been deleted. Maybe cudgee cudgee could put them back in.

"

Recently i took on a project to try and improve a lambsfoot that i have, it was sort of successful but not what i wanted to achieve. But in the process my curiosity was aroused, i had done some research, but there was limited material out there. I wanted to know how much actual dye could be removed from the bone covers of a knife. After my experiment, i came to the conclusion that dark colours could not be removed completely, but you would have more success with lighter colours. My father had many sayings, one was, if you want to know how to do something, ask someone who does it for a living, and another was, don't be afraid to have a go at trying something new yourself, that way you will learn by YOUR mistakes. So i hunted around and found a woman online who's career is collecting bone and making trinkets and ornaments with it. She scrounges bone from dead animals in the bush, and buys bone from professional hunters. I emailed her with some questions, and she said my conclusion about dark dye being nearly impossible to remove compared to light dye was correct, but she also pointed out something that i would never had known, the longer a dye is in the bone no matter what colour it is becomes nearly impossible to remove. This got me thinking, so i have come up with an idea that we can all participate in and learn from. My thinking is, as i have attempted this already and with what i have already learnt, and with a what we are about to attempt, we can all learn something and members of the porch my find the conclusions helpful into the future if they are attempting to mod their own knife covers.

So this is the project, and i am making it like a class project like we use to have in school, so all comments, observations and input is welcome, this is not just my project it is for everyone here who is interested, so feel free to join in. I have a supposed knife nick opener, for that, it is not worth a cold pie, but i use it as an emergency screwdriver but mainly as a scraper to clean knife strops, for that it is brilliant, and as our little mate Rachel pointed out, great for opening pistachio nuts, and who doesn't love them:p.
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This is it as of now.

The first part of the experiment will be to soak it in 6% solution Hydrogen Peroxide, i will observe it and take notes and photos over however long it sits in the solution. We want to see how much dye can be removed over what period of time, normally i would say because it is a light colour we would be able to get it back to white bone, but as the woman pointed out, because we don't know how long the dye has been in the bone this may not be achievable. So it may sit in the solution from a few days to up to a month, i have no idea, but i will keep replacing the 6% solution if and when it becomes inactive. We also want to observe what happens to the metal, one of my concerns with my knife was damage to the liners and backspring and pins with long term submerging in the solution. They did tarnish badly, but that was removed easily and they polished up really well.
The second part, and we will discuss this later, will be trying a re-dye project, but we will see what happens with the dye removal first. So anyone who reads this and would like to ask any questions, or has any suggestions or other input please join in, as i stated this is for everyone to maybe learn something on a subject with not much information out there, or worst, some misinformation.
 
Interesting question Jeff and I've thought about it myself for some knives.

Unless you are some manner of chemist or dyer I'd be wary of trying a chemical solution (heard people suggest brake or was it transmission fluid but that can't be advisable :eek::poop:) Bone could get badly damaged or the results could be unsatisfactory and blotchy I'd fear.

One of the skilled Modmen might be able to give advice based on real experience . What I'd try would be to expose it to as much sunlight as possible, that certainly will fade colour but that too carries some risk if things get very dry. But you could place the knife in a sunny window for say 8 days, turning it over every day to equal out the effect. I'd guess that Blues, Reds, Oranges would respond well to it, Dark Brown probably a toughie but we've probably all seen some knives very light Mark side from being in a window display and dark on the 'untanned 'Pile.
 
black mamba said:
Can dark bone covers be lightened? Say from dark brown to tan, or from deep blue to sky blue.
If so, how can it be done, what would you use? Thanks!
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It can be done, it takes time, and you have to keep an eye on it, i have tried it twice with varying success. But it is not like santa's wish list, the colour you end up with might not be the exact colour you were trying to achieve, but you can definitely lighten them to some extent. I would PM you, but my membership has expired and i am not renewing while the Aussie dollar is so weak against the Greenback, works out too expensive with the other fees. But i will help you through the process if you decide to go ahead with it. Have a good Independence Day. :thumbsup:
 
Modoc ED said:
Maybe cudgee cudgee could put them back in.
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Had my phone stolen, so deleted all the data and photos i had stored in it. So all the photos are gone, and my computer died and had to get a new hard drive, all the stored stuff got deleted, so no photos of the project. Photos deleted from IMGUR are automatically deleted from the forum. Sorry.
 
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I have some threads somewhere on using hydrogen peroxide to remove dye, if you search them out.

Short answer, it can work, and it can work very well, but it is inconsistent and can cause rust spots.

This knife was an unpleasant shade of yellow, so I used hydrogen peroxide to make it white (pictured alongside a better example), then dyed it a nice toffee color.

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PointyThings said:
I thought I read somewhere that rubbing the bone covers with denatured alcohol would remove some of the dye. How much dye I couldn't begin to say, especially since I haven't tried it myself.
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I have dyed several knives with leather oil dye. I use 99% rubbing alcohol to remove existing oil before dying and to rinse out the excess dye after. It has no effect on the knife, or on the original dye. Denatured alcohol and 99% rubbing alcohol are very similar chemicals. They both will clean your knives very effectively and won't leave behind any residue once they evaporate.
Camillus said:
HvVCs6Z.jpg


I have some threads somewhere on using hydrogen peroxide to remove dye, if you search them out.

Short answer, it can work, and it can work very well, but it is inconsistent and can cause rust spots.

This knife was an unpleasant shade of yellow, so I used hydrogen peroxide to make it white (pictured alongside a better example), then dyed it a nice toffee color.

s8j8o2w.jpg


sZzDL3q.jpg
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Your knife looks fantastic! I would be extremely wary of using hydrogen peroxide on bone though. I once used it to clean a squirrel skull, soaked it for a week or two. It made the bone chalky and brittle and I read somewhere else that this was a likely result. I would make sure to introduce a polish or oil into the bone afterward.
mrknife said:
yeah thats sorta what i had pictured. i didnt think bone dyed black well, or it wouldnt hold right? its not the first thing that comes to mind when im think of black handles.
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I think one of the main issues with black dye is what color the base is. The really dark blacks are often actually blue base. I found that out the hard way! Most of the bone handles I've dyed tend to look a bit mottled, because the of varying density of the bone, but I think it adds character.
 
As I have stated on other threads concerning redyes and removal of verdigris, hydrogen peroxide is an oxidizer and as such could due some damage to the integrity of bone (I’m a professional archaeologist and deal fairly often with mammal bone of many species and have had to clean new bone for use in comparative collections). If knife is of any value, I would stay way from an oxidizer.
 
Having done this a few times, I would be more worried about rust than any supposed weakening of the bone from h2o2. The handles normally turn out good, the metal doesn’t always make it untarnished.

Bear in mind that lighter colored dyes will normally come out faster, and give better results. Good luck.
 
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