Green polishing compound and smooth white bone

[Jack Black]

There is a chance that this not honing compound but verdigris. Try a weak acid, like apple cider vinegar or lemon juice. Soak a Q-tip and put the wet cotton on one spot and let it work for a couple of hours. If it’s honing compound it’s aluminum oxide suspended in green wax, which may respond to heat. The best solvent for waxes is acetone. You can soak a knife in acetone, but probably wouldn’t do that except on bone or stag. I’d also try a soft brass wire brush.

I was thinking the same

 

[eisman]

Use an ultrasonic cleaner. Wet the spots with a little mineral oil or cleaner like Hoppe's. Let it sit for a bit then into the tank and it should lift out. That should work with either compound or verdigris.

 

[BDubbs]

So maybe acetone worked best out of the suggested solutions, but I probably should have given all the proposed solutions several days to work and I didn’t. I ended up scrubbing it with a non abrasive pad and some light abrasive powder. That got it off but really highlighted the gap and also rounded the bone. I emailed the mothership and sent them a photo, if they have any more of that bone maybe I can pay for a fix if not I’m thinking that I would really like a mesquite 78 after seeing the 23s. If anyone has suggestions/recommendations please pass them along. Thanks again for all the input.

 

[Will Power]

Hope you get some help from GEC. I'm resentful with them as I damaged a 73 pattern by dropping it very first day I got it- pile side. I contacted them and offered to pay for a new slab- Ivory Bone so no jigging or colouring match needed and no shield fitting work either. They did not reply, tried again and got a terse response - they didn't keep 'parts' in stock and would not do it-even at my expense and the knife had only been out of production a few months before. This was some years ago, maybe they're different about such things now but I'd never had such a poor response from a knife company.

You might consider a re-handle job from an artisan? I strongly recommend @jsdistin from personal experience. That gap does not look too nice.

 

[Onearmbladenut]

Some mesquite burl wood would look great on that GEC#78 knife.

 

[BDubbs]

Some mesquite burl wood would look great on that GEC#78 knife.

After seeing the way the 23s turned out I agree. If I don’t have something definitive from the mothership by Friday it’s heading to the shop for an update. I’ll post before and after photos.

 

[BDubbs]

So, I sent it to @jsdistin and he reskinned it in rag micarta with a bomb shield. Really happy with how it turned out. Jeff thanks for answering the 100 questions I had on the process.

 

[traumkommode]

You shouldn't have any issues with use. If you want to secure it more, you can take a really thin toothpick or something and slide some epoxy in that gap, but unless you have a big accident with the knife that would damage the bone anyway, it shouldn't suffer any further separation. Sometimes bone, when it is not taken care of and let to dry too much, will warp or shrink a little just like wood. So a little mineral oil here and there is your friend moving forward to keep it conditioned.

There was some kind of situation where a forum member had to have a 77 barlow cover addressed by GEC I believe for manufacturing defect. They agreed to recover it, but it took some matter of months for them to do, because they don't keep a stock of parts for each run around like big modern knife manufacturers, so I think they had to wait until the next run of 77s to do it, or he had to wait to send it in to them until the next time they ran 77s. Something like that, I could have that all wrong, BUT... Even on large GEC runs, they are producing an incredibly small number of knives compared to a modern knifemaker, and that defect is very likely from the previous owner's negligence and not a factory defect. The pandemic isn't helping the GEC factory any, either.

All that said - I know the splinter-in-your-mind nagging of an imperfection on a knife with which you want to be in love, so if it is enough to turn you off to the knife, I agree that having one of the modders do a recover is a wise move. Just ask and make sure the modder is confident he can restore the same action after reassmbly - sometimes the action isn't the same, the snap/pull are weaker, etc., depending on the method used to reassemble.