btb01
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2008
- Messages
- 7,697
When the #13's were first announced, and this preview drawing posted on GEC's website, the variant I was most interested in was the Speaker Jack. In part, it was because I think the sheepsfoot looks better on this pattern than the wharncliffe (and at that time, there was no talk of the Whittler), but it was also because I thought the dark, chocolatey brown jigged bone they gave the Speaker Jack in the preview drawing looked very nice!
Of course, GEC ended up going with Rust Red jigged bone instead. Now don't get me wrong, I like GEC's Rust Red jigged bone. I have a few other GEC knives in Rust Red, and I like them just fine, but it just wasn't what I was hoping for on the Speaker Jack. When I got mine in, I was very happy with the knife, but couldn't help the fact that I was still a bit disappointed in the color of the bone.
So I decided to do something about it. I went to the store, bought some Dark Brown RIT dye, and went to work. I followed jamesbeats process as summarized by meako in this thread.
Anyways, without any further ado, let's get to the pictures.
Before:
After:
As you can see, it turned out pretty dark. I sort of expected that to be the case. I went back and forth between the Dark Brown dye and the Chocolate Brown, but because the red was already pretty dark to begin with, I don't think it would've made much of a difference. In person, along the edges and towards the bolsters, it is a rich, dark brown (looks quite nice, really), but that just doesn't show up very well in the photos.
The dye job does do a bit of a number on the bolsters, springs and blades. When I took the knife out of the dye, most of the metal that had been submerged had taken on a splotchy, bronze-ish tint, and there were dark spots on the springs and parts of the blades. (Thankfully, I did not submerge the blades with the knife, but left them half open and sticking out of the dye/water. This didn't keep them from getting some spots, but I think it would've been worse had I submerged the whole knife closed.)
The bronze tint on the bolsters, shield, backsprings and tangs took some polishing to get rid of (I just used a rag with some green compound on it), but having done that, they look just as good as new. The darker spots on the springs and blades didn't come off, but hey, it's just gives the knife more character.
It would have been great if GEC had offered the Speaker Jack in the same deep chestnut color they used for the American Whittler SFO, but I think this is the next best thing.
Of course, GEC ended up going with Rust Red jigged bone instead. Now don't get me wrong, I like GEC's Rust Red jigged bone. I have a few other GEC knives in Rust Red, and I like them just fine, but it just wasn't what I was hoping for on the Speaker Jack. When I got mine in, I was very happy with the knife, but couldn't help the fact that I was still a bit disappointed in the color of the bone.
So I decided to do something about it. I went to the store, bought some Dark Brown RIT dye, and went to work. I followed jamesbeats process as summarized by meako in this thread.
Anyways, without any further ado, let's get to the pictures.
Before:
After:
As you can see, it turned out pretty dark. I sort of expected that to be the case. I went back and forth between the Dark Brown dye and the Chocolate Brown, but because the red was already pretty dark to begin with, I don't think it would've made much of a difference. In person, along the edges and towards the bolsters, it is a rich, dark brown (looks quite nice, really), but that just doesn't show up very well in the photos.
The dye job does do a bit of a number on the bolsters, springs and blades. When I took the knife out of the dye, most of the metal that had been submerged had taken on a splotchy, bronze-ish tint, and there were dark spots on the springs and parts of the blades. (Thankfully, I did not submerge the blades with the knife, but left them half open and sticking out of the dye/water. This didn't keep them from getting some spots, but I think it would've been worse had I submerged the whole knife closed.)
The bronze tint on the bolsters, shield, backsprings and tangs took some polishing to get rid of (I just used a rag with some green compound on it), but having done that, they look just as good as new. The darker spots on the springs and blades didn't come off, but hey, it's just gives the knife more character.
It would have been great if GEC had offered the Speaker Jack in the same deep chestnut color they used for the American Whittler SFO, but I think this is the next best thing.
