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New acquisition - delrin or bone?

akadave2

akadave2

Joined
Jun 21, 2008
Messages
7,923
I cant be sure but now that Ive taken pics it looks very much like bone. 1971 9 dot doctors knife Opinions?
bone1.jpg

bone2.jpg

stamp1.jpg

doc1.JPG
 
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Well the rule of thumb use to be if the case shield has a circle it's bone if no circle it's delrin. But I can't remember the year that started. I have 1978 25 1/2 pattern that is delrin with no circle. The first pic towards the front pin appears to be bone to me, you won't get color variations in delrin or at least I've never seen any unless they were damaged.
 
Looks like bone, can kind of see where the dye is lighter in some places..

Jason
 
The uneven dyeing near the bolster tells me it's bone with very little doubt.
All the Delrin I've seen so far was same colour all along the handle

Mateo
 
That's bone all the way. Very nice. :thumbup:

The somewhat mottled coloration near the bolsters is what I noticed. Bone doesn't evenly absorb dye, and it always shows. Delrin handles are much more uniform & plain, with little or none of that mottled look. The bone also shows more depth to it, as if looking through glass at the texture & grain underneath. And bone will show pores (delrin doesn't), especially if looking with a good magnifier and bright light at the end grain, or sometimes the inside edges of the jigging. And it's easier to indent or scratch delrin with a thumbnail; bone is much harder.
 
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akadave2 said:
Pattern is 6185 but Case was known to do this pattern number with Delrin even with the 6 in pattern number
Click to expand...

Yes, the '6' in the pattern number is usually indication of a jigged handle most of the time, as opposed to the material used. I think some smooth bone handles have also been labelled as such, occasionally, but those are less common. The '6' has also been used for the laminated wood (also jigged) on the 6265 Folding Hunters (same pattern stamp for wood and bone versions), and maybe other patterns as well.
 
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1974 was when they started using a different shield for the composites and wood handled knives. That said, I would definatly say that your knife is bone.
 
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