- Joined
- May 28, 2003
- Messages
- 1,815
A never ending tale of woe.
I've posted this information before, but for the sake of the newer forumites here's my secret anti-horn-crack potion- Olive oil. Olive oil Olive oil! Thirty-some years ago, when I started making knives, black buffalo horn was one of my favorite materials for scale handles. Somewhere, I read or heard that soaking them in olive oil for a day or 2 prevented cracking (it works on ivory too) That's what I've been doing ever since, and I've never had a crack. I live in Chicago, and it gets mighty cold and dry in the winter, and humid in the summer.
I keep the oil in a tall, skinny jar and clamp the blade in padded vice jaws with the handle down in the oil. If it isn't high enough to completely cover the horn, I put in some big bolts to raise the level. Leave it overnight or a couple of days, let the excess oil drain back in the jar and save it for the next knife. My oil is probably 20 years old and not rancid or anything. Don't bother with extra-virgin, the cheap stuff will do fine.
I always work over khukuri handles, as I don't like the kami finish. I love the blades, not the handle work. I re-file the grooves, and clean up the general fit, so the brass and horn are level with each other. The most pleasing final "polish" treatment I've found so far is a rub with powdered pumice and a drop olive oil on a folded cloth pad the size of a postage stamp. Not too shinny, a nice matte subdued look. Not slippery, not plasticy, with nice, grippy, tactile quality. Then soak it in the magic potion.
A word of caution: if you have a polishing /buffing set-up, use only the very coarse black emory compound for prepping the horn before final rub-down. Just to see where the deep scratches and dings are.. Fine polishing compounds like rouge, just make a mess. Do it by hand. Sandpaper and pumice.
That's my sermon for today.
Brian
I've posted this information before, but for the sake of the newer forumites here's my secret anti-horn-crack potion- Olive oil. Olive oil Olive oil! Thirty-some years ago, when I started making knives, black buffalo horn was one of my favorite materials for scale handles. Somewhere, I read or heard that soaking them in olive oil for a day or 2 prevented cracking (it works on ivory too) That's what I've been doing ever since, and I've never had a crack. I live in Chicago, and it gets mighty cold and dry in the winter, and humid in the summer.
I keep the oil in a tall, skinny jar and clamp the blade in padded vice jaws with the handle down in the oil. If it isn't high enough to completely cover the horn, I put in some big bolts to raise the level. Leave it overnight or a couple of days, let the excess oil drain back in the jar and save it for the next knife. My oil is probably 20 years old and not rancid or anything. Don't bother with extra-virgin, the cheap stuff will do fine.
I always work over khukuri handles, as I don't like the kami finish. I love the blades, not the handle work. I re-file the grooves, and clean up the general fit, so the brass and horn are level with each other. The most pleasing final "polish" treatment I've found so far is a rub with powdered pumice and a drop olive oil on a folded cloth pad the size of a postage stamp. Not too shinny, a nice matte subdued look. Not slippery, not plasticy, with nice, grippy, tactile quality. Then soak it in the magic potion.
A word of caution: if you have a polishing /buffing set-up, use only the very coarse black emory compound for prepping the horn before final rub-down. Just to see where the deep scratches and dings are.. Fine polishing compounds like rouge, just make a mess. Do it by hand. Sandpaper and pumice.
That's my sermon for today.
Brian
