draggat
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2010
- Messages
- 2,927
Well said, Will. For years, I did nothing to protect my horde of horn knives. It began incrementally, figuring a few easy steps wouldn't hurt anything and it's not something I'm constantly worried about.Tend to think this beetle invasion thing is overblown. Most infestation occurred when the Horn was in store in sheds etc. These past decades with regular vacuum cleaning and household cleaning agents, the pests are very unlikely to thrive. Recall that when the 2018 Forum Knife's handles were being 'debated'there was an outbreak of catastrophe culture hysteria about opting for Ram's Horn....People thundering about infestation of the house and it being ruined, the collection lost forever- they must have been living in Termiteville or allowed very crazy areas of their mind to dominate...
that year we got American Elk a very satisfactory slab. In 2020 we were fortunate to get a knife at all and with Ram's Horn, again there was gibbering about beetles ....some character even disinfected his knife on arrival or some such abject hypochondria
Have here been subsequent reports of Forum Knife handles chomped into oblivion? No. The main problem with horn is low grade material not sufficiently treated-this will warp. Major dryness of the air under 20% can cause shrink and curl. Bovine horn seems the worst. My collection of European horn handled knives have shown no problems. Couple of English knives warped but they arrived poorly fitted anyway. As for beetles, they've shown no inclination to invadewish mosquitoes, horse and elk flies were the same
There's no harm in taking precautions, some vintage knives show bore holes but I wonder if the holes were there already when the slabs went on? Whatever, Horn is a great material .
The real worry is, as you said, low quality horn which can and does shrink and curl. I've never had any issues with all of my bovine horn, but they are all cut from the tip portion which is the most stable part.
The only infestation I have ever had was with a small taxidermy piece that was swarmed by moths, the same type that will eat horn. Luckily, it was limited to just that one specimen and I caught it before major damage happened.
I do vaguely recall the fellow who disinfected his forum knife upon arrival. I've never done that, but to each their own!
