My OKC AF Pilot Survival knife's handle gets some darkening treatment...

[PocketKnifeJimmy]

Housed in this display are knives from (top to bottom)...
Ontario
Camillus
KaBar
Glock
Walden Schrade
Glock
Ontario


My Ontario AF Pilot Survival knife was/is definitely the crudest looking of all my OKC knives. It just looked that way right out of the box. Hey, it's okay, adding a bit of roughness to my otherwise not so rough looking collection.
Anyhow, every now and again I go through my items and give them some routine maintenance (knives get a quick inspection and a wipe down with a very lightly oiled cloth). The one thing that I wanted changed on the AF Pilot Survival knife, was the look of it's very open grain stacked leather handle. It simply needed to look less dry and darker in my eyes.
Well, I rummaged through one of my closets to see if I could find some leather conditioner. Yup, had some that I've used on my U.S. made Red Wing Engineer boots. The bottle warned against using on suede type leathers because it could heavily darken such leathers... PERFECT! A good amount worked into the leather handle, did exactly that... Darkened it
It now seems right to my eyes

 

[Boggs]

Though I’m not a fan of the Pilots knife...darkening the leather just seems to fit...

 

[afishhunter]

Pilot's knife is one of my favorites.

It looks good to my eyes too.

 

[zanussi01]

To darken my 'ol JPK I burnished the leather.
Place the blade in a vice,wet your hand and rub it around the handle.
Then using a piece of hardwood,rub hard on the leather until it shines and squeaks.
Keep pressure on it until done all the way around to keep the heat up.
Once that's done,rub with beeswax and polish with a strip of cloth in a shoeshine
fashion.Good to go!