Question on camel bone PICS ADDED

Matt Rochester

Matt Rochester

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Nov 28, 2014
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I bought some dyed camel bone the other day for a couple knives I'm working on. They are blackish or really dark brown. After I got them glued up and started grinding them almost all the color is gone and now they are splotchy brown and mostly white. My question is, is there a way I can dye them back to some extent with them attached? Can I soak it in leather or wood dye while attached? I'll see if I can get some pictures up later. Thanks.
 
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Anyone see any issue with soaking the handle in leather dye for an extended amount of time? It's attached with g-flex and Corby bolts.
 
Just that the dye will likely stain the corbys and the tang. Which isn't insurmountable just something to keep in mind that you'll want to fix.
 
i do not think the soaking will be an issue. even if it is an alcohol based dye it will not affect the glue.
 
Leather dye does the same with wood. That is why you can "lighten" it by sanding. Be warned that penetration and color are effected by the varying porosity and density of the materials. That is not an issue with wood, but it can be with stuff like "interior" stag,whihc is essentially bone.
john april said:
is it normal that the dye does not penetrate the entire bone ?
Click to expand...
 
I'm going to sand to 220 and try soaking them in leather dye. I'll post my results later. Thanks for the responses.
 
I believe you use potassium permanganate on bone , it is used on stag to darken the color .
 
So I tried leather dye. I soaked it for 8 hours or so with not much luck. What about putting the whole knife in dye under vacuum?
 
What do you mean no luck? I haven't had much not staining something with leather dye. It'll stain greased Teflon.
 
I mean it's not taking much color at all. It is only a couple thousandths deep. I hand sanded it to 220 and soaked it. After a couple strokes of 400 it's already showing white. I can brush on the dye and let it dry and get the look I'm wanting but it's just on the surface and I'm afraid it won't last.

Edit: I'll check with the supplier to see if maybe it was stabilized and that's why it not taking much color. Heck by now I could've already removed them and put another set on but it's kind of a challenge at this point and I'm pretty stubborn.
 
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If the camel bone is stabilized, it won't absorb much dye now.

I always found the outer surface color of commercial dyed camel and giraffe bone scales was very different than the inside when ground down. The color comes back a bit when the bone is sanded to a fine grit and then buffed well. I found that the black finished as a mottled blue-gray and the brown finished as a mottled tan.
 
This is after all my dyeing attempts and while it looks ok, not as dark as I'd like, a little rubbing from a fine scotchbrite pad to clean the bolts and tang it takes most of my color away.
 
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