Found this stag handled hone - what do you recommend?

[Los Angeles]

Found this at the same flea market last weekend where I picked up the big redwood burl.

The steel itself is pretty well made and does the trick. No mars, gouges or other nicks that would cause damage to a knife if used properly. It also has a really great patina working right now.

The handle appears to be some form of genuine stag, but I don't know antlers from my own rear end, so if someone could hazard a guess as to what it might me, I'm all ears.

Here's a close-up in the sun with a 6" ruler next to it.

The Butt cap and collar are both a little loose right now. They are stamped "sterling" but have tarnished to a gun gray. I don't think the seller even bothered to look at the material.

My wish is to somehow get this thing apart, separate the steel from the stag, throw the sterling into the scrap pile (to be recast later), re-handle the steel with a plain but solid hardwood handle and then maybe use the stag on a knife.

Anyone have any advice or comments?

 

[Yellow Lab]

I wonder if you should carefully clean it up and find a buyer. Sounds like it is well made and someone would likely pay you more than what you may have paid for it. My $0.02....

 

[hodgescl]

its probably part of a nice carving set. if you devide to sell it, i wouldnt do anythign to it, old stuff seems to be worth more as is.

 

[anvilring]

Carving sets (knife, fork, and steel) go for pennys on ebay and elsewhere. No demand. You've got the right idea: remove that beautiful Sambar Stag (and yes it "appears" to be just that; about $40 bucks worth) handle and use it on something else. I do this frequently by finding just such as this on ebay. You will find more than likely that the hole in the stag unfortunately goes all the way through and is perfectly square. If your set on not ruining the temper of the steel, boil the handle in water untill you can (with oven mitts of course!) twist/pull it off. Now your good to go. The stag will recover from the boiling provided you don't leave it "boiling" too long; 10 min. ought to do it.

m

 

[Los Angeles]

Thanks for the advice, anvilring. Just the kind of information I was looking for!

 

[jayinhk]

I'd leave it as is. It is beautiful. Don't polish the silver and definitely don't boil the stag! How much did it run you?

 

[Los Angeles]

I suppose I should have sold it to you, jayinhk.

I think maybe my pictures are giving it too much justice. All of the fittings were loose, and when jiggled, a white powder from the adhesive would sift out. Whatever they used, it was hard but brittle stuff.

Well, live and learn. It's all dismantled now. The edge of the steel where it met the sterling is all marred up but that will be pretty easy to file back to a usable form.

Far worse than that, the stag was cracked up at the top at two different places (one at about 5:30 and another at 9:30 if the round were a clock). Seems like the maker used the sterling to cover up the origin of these cracks. When getting the hone's round tang out of the stag, I split the darn thing in both places about halfway down the sides. the thickest 2-2.5" section at the bottom is still usable as a round, but everything above that is toast.

So now I have a choice:

1) cut the thing up into one-sided scales (not pairs) and put them on a couple of slimlines on one side? (that's a design I've been going with on some of my stuff. I't borrowed from a lot of folder makers who use single scales on one side of course.)

2) cut the bottom two inches off and "stack" it with another material?

3) cry a little inside and throw it in a drawer and move on.

I'm leaning towards #3.

 

[Shaughnessy]

Pics of the damage / cracks?

 

[jayinhk]

If you don't need the stag, I could use it for a custom FHM balisong--I'm Indian and I've been thinking about having an FHM made with custom sambar stag inserts.