Ram’s horn scales are deforming

Leave the mineral oil alone. It won't help. It does ruin stag, and does nothing for ivory.

Clamp the scale as flat as you can without breaking it. Pad the scale with leather or layers of cloth. Then put it in the oven at 250 degrees maximum for about 30 minutes. Take the scale out (it will be hot!) and tighten the clamp to get the scale flat. Then, put it back in the oven for another 30 minutes. Turn the oven off and let the part cool to room temperature in the oven.
If necessary, you can do this with the scale still on the knife. You can use a heat gun, but it's difficult to get the horn at even temperature all the way through without burning it.

Mineral oil can ruin stag. The only thing it does for horn is soak into delaminations-making the horn look better temporarily. Unfortunately, this ruins the horn for further repair with cyanacrylics.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
Leave the mineral oil alone. It won't help. It does ruin stag, and does nothing for ivory.

Clamp the scale as flat as you can without breaking it. Pad the scale with leather or layers of cloth. Then put it in the oven at 250 degrees maximum for about 30 minutes. Take the scale out (it will be hot!) and tighten the clamp to get the scale flat. Then, put it back in the oven for another 30 minutes. Turn the oven off and let the part cool to room temperature in the oven.
If necessary, you can do this with the scale still on the knife. You can use a heat gun, but it's difficult to get the horn at even temperature all the way through without burning it.

Mineral oil can ruin stag. The only thing it does for horn is soak into delaminations-making the horn look better temporarily. Unfortunately, this ruins the horn for further repair with cyanacrylics.
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Thank you for the help sir! I will give this a shot.

Easyrider said:
This issue could be looked upon as an excuse to have a custom knifemaker put new rams horn on it or perhaps some really beautiful stag!
Click to expand...

I agree. Any suggestions on who may be able to do this?
 
I wish I could help you with a maker. Maybe go into the knife makers part of the forum and ask?
 
I assume the scales are mechanically attached to the liners? Pins or screws?
If not, they'll come off doing what I described.
 
They are screwed on with Torx screws.

I plan to take them off and follow your instructions. Tomorrow when the hardware store opens I’ll get a few clamps that wil survive being put into the oven.

Thanks again!
 
I ordered four metal 1” c-clamps from Amazon yesterday. May take a month or two to arrive the way shipping has been going.

Upon arrival, I plan to remove the scales and sandwich them between two blocks of 1/4” wood and put them in my oven.

I will keep you all posted on how it goes.

To be completely honest, while rams horn is aesthetically pleasing, I am not so sure it’s a great choice for a knife that sees a lot of day to day use.
 
I doubt that most do.
Ram horn can slowly shrink for years, so it might not do much good anyway.
 
A side note for anyone else attempting to do this.

Bill’s instructions to use blocks of wood and to sandwich the scales is a better way than what I did.

The scales have imprints where the clamps where attached. In my hasty ordering I bought one inch clamps. Thin pieces of wood may not have the rigidity needed.

Larger clamps with stiff pieces of wood would have been a much cleaner way to do this. Also, removing the scales and doing them one at a time would be even better.

You can see an imprint here:

BB1D4CCF-A38A-4097-B42B-DF4ADD937359.jpeg

That said, I’m not too worried about it, as this knife is getting carried regularly. If you are concerned on keeping yours clean, use Bill’s method.
 
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