darkening stag on a knife handle?

thales2015

thales2015

Joined
Jul 19, 2014
Messages
2,199
Hello

I recently got a beautiful knife with stag handles - one being lighter than the other. I'd ideally like to get them a bit more evenly matched up in color and wanted to know what I could do (thats relatively easy) to get that done. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
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Potassium permanganate solution, applied with a Q tip. Let dry thoroughly. If still too light, reapply-until it matches.
 
Thanks for the response - is there anything special about the proportions of the solution i should be aware of? I only see filings online - so, I mix some with water (how much)? Thanks again for your time and responses.
 
I mix it until the water is totally saturated. (Until no more will dissolve.)
Wear plastic/rubber gloves-it stains everything! It will be purple at first, but turns brown as it dries. Be very careful with the PP. Look up hazards online and take precautions.
 
I read somewhere that potassium permanganate was(or still is)used to disinfect Sambar stag before being imported into the U.S.I appreciate your input on this forum Mr.DeShivs,your advice to others on solutions to solve a problem has always worked when I have tried it.I used potassium permanganate to highlight the grain of the tiger maple in these two Mora blanks the darker one was exposed to more solution the wood was from the same chunk.Soaking stag that is really white where the bark has been sanded in coca-cola will turn the light areas a light honey color as in the stag in the other picture.


Honey colored stag

 
I read somewhere that potassium permanganate was(or still is)used to disinfect Sambar stag before being imported into the U.S.I appreciate your input on this forum Mr.DeShivs,your advice to others on solutions to solve a problem has always worked when I have tried it.I used potassium permanganate to highlight the grain of the tiger maple in these two Mora blanks the darker one was exposed to more solution the wood was from the same chunk.Soaking stag that is really white where the bark has been sanded in coca-cola will turn the light areas a light honey color as in the stag in the other picture.The other handle in the pic with two Moras is Irish bog oak.


Honey colored stag

 
Ooops,sorry bout the double and I do not know how two delete one.I think the sear on my keyboard is like my 72 year old Ithaca mod 37 and lacks a disconnector.
 
My neices husbands family owns a water treatment business and I get the potassium per.and hydrogen peroxide that is 50 something or over in percentage.
P.P.is a disinfectant,used to treat water with high iron content,dye when added to bottle on left(water)and when mixed witu the right bottle(glycerin)and if temperature is above around 60 dgs or so it ignites and burns with a vengeance for longer than you thought it wood.

Found a regular home peroxide less than ten pcnt heavily salted and brought to scalding temp would give metal a brown finish when rust rubbed with denim put back in mix and rubbed again and repeat til desired color reached.The high pct stuff gets same heavy dose of salt but no stove necessary since it will boil from heat generated by metal oxidizing and I did not rub as much with denim since a rougher finish was what i wanted.I hear peroxide and kerosine mix is rocket fuel.


 
I used a simple method to darken a bone handled GEC. Should work for stag. I just used tobacco in very hot water and covered scales completely. I let it soak for about a day, periodically reheating the tobacco. Turned the almost white bone to an old looking brownish yellow. That stuff will stain anything.
 
I used Feibing's Medium Brown leather dye applied very sparingly to darken this stag after sanding it down to smooth the ridges.

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No heating, no water, no mixing, just wipe it on, wipe off the excess and let it dry.:thumbup:
 
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mykel m said:
I used Feibing's Medium Brown leather dye applied very sparingly to darken this stag after sanding it down to smooth the ridges.



Here it is after a couple of coats applied to an antler crown on my hiking stick.



No heating, no water, no mixing, just wipe it on, wipe off the excess and let it dry.:thumbup:
Click to expand...
What grit sandpaper did you sand it to? I of recent ordered my #77 stag barlow and picked what I felt was nice consistent stag with matching scales and good figure. That aside I may want to darken it in the future as I like dark stag over light stag.
 
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