So I dyed my Rough Rider barlow

[knarfeng]

Mercy, John. What a change!
Good job on that.

 

[Pipeman]

I use Fiebings leather dye for everything, leather, wood, bone, antler. Both types work well, oil and spirit based dye. Here is a pic of a couple of Sammi style knive showing antler dyed and undyed.
I've dyed lots of RR knives. I find if you sand out the smooth bone or steelwool the jigged bone it will dye more evenly.
Best regards

Robin

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[pipedreams308]

The Moore Maker peanut in the pic had white bone scales when I bought it. Rit Hunter Green fixed that.

 

[pistonsandgears]

The Moore Maker peanut in the pic had white cone scales when I bought it. Rit Hunter Green fixed that.

This just gave me visions of dying one of the white bone #15s hmm

 

[rune1279]

Got pics?

No before shots, but here's a decent-ish (color tuning is *hard*) shot of the result:

The mark side was pretty good to start -- it just got a little browner. It was the pile side that was a mess, especially on that last stretch between the pins and the bolsters. That really came out quite a bit better. It's just one knife -- both sides appear at once through the magic of photoshop (the magic of GiMP, technically, but no less annoying to work with.)

--Mark

 

[jc57]

That turned out really well, Mark! Definitely a unique color of deep rich Chestnut. And you did all of that with just tea?

 

[rune1279]

That turned out really well, Mark! Definitely a unique color of deep rich Chestnut. And you did all of that with just tea?

Thanks! Just tea, yes, but fairly strong -- 3 bags of black tea for three cups of simmering water, and the tea had definitely been boiled by the end. This would have been a viciously bitter cuppa.

Looking at it on my laptop (which has a terrible display) I'm not sure I got the color right in the photo -- it looked better on my desktop display, but then, everything does. (Be interesting to check it on my monitor at work tomorrow for a 3rd vote.) In real life it kept the mild reddish tone that the chestnut bone has when it's done right, just with a brown hue in the places where the dye was too weak -- this, compared to the very reddish color it had to start with.

I've dyed a handful of knives now (I did a batch months back with RIT in preparation for fixing up a mismatched mini copperhead), and find I have much better luck "fine tuning" a color than "overwriting" it.

--Mark

 

[csisland]

Thanks! Just tea, yes, but fairly strong -- 3 bags of black tea for three cups of simmering water, and the tea had definitely been boiled by the end. This would have been a viciously bitter cuppa.

Looking at it on my laptop (which has a terrible display) I'm not sure I got the color right in the photo -- it looked better on my desktop display, but then, everything does. (Be interesting to check it on my monitor at work tomorrow for a 3rd vote.) In real life it kept the mild reddish tone that the chestnut bone has when it's done right, just with a brown hue in the places where the dye was too weak -- this, compared to the very reddish color it had to start with.

I've dyed a handful of knives now (I did a batch months back with RIT in preparation for fixing up a mismatched mini copperhead), and find I have much better luck "fine tuning" a color than "overwriting" it.

--Mark

nice job with the dye. i sent you a visitor message.

 

[Will Power]

This has been a VERY interesting thread, creative too, thank you.

I'm wondering if I dare try dyeing some stag? Got a rather smooth and light colour GEC 85 2 blade. Do you actually boil it in strong tea? Not sure if stag will hold up to this, are there any other darkening or ageing tips?

Regards, Will

 

[midnight flyer]

This has been a VERY interesting thread, creative too, thank you.

I'm wondering if I dare try dyeing some stag? Got a rather smooth and light colour GEC 85 2 blade. Do you actually boil it in strong tea? Not sure if stag will hold up to this, are there any other darkening or ageing tips?

Regards, Will

There was a pretty good thread on that very subject here, Will:

http://www.britishblades.com/forums/showthread.php?72802-Dying-Stag

Make sure you follow the link in post #5.

I found that thread when I was looking at the possibility of dyeing a knife I had a while back. The thread discusses leather dye, potassium permanganate and yes, tea for changing color and simple aging.

If you take the plunge, I hope you post pics! The knife I was going to experiment on is gone, but I run into a knife every once and a while that look great except for its color. Some (like at a gun show) are reduced in price because they are as that CASE was earlier in this thread, just too noisy to look at. I would love to see some more of this coloring and aging on bone and horn as I would have a great excuse to buy another knife if I thought it was one I could re-color.

Robert

 

[Will Power]

Thank you for the links Robert.

Still a bit uneasy about 'boiling' a whole knife...it's OK if you've got chunks of stag or bone slabs. Strong tea still looks an option though.

Regards, Will

 

[winchester73]

Anyone know if it can be done or tried to dye ivory micata. Did it stay if you did dye it?

 

[joeymoey]

This just gave me visions of dying one of the white bone #15s hmm

We must think alike because I had the same exact thought ~

 

[midnight flyer]

Thank you for the links Robert.

Still a bit uneasy about 'boiling' a whole knife...it's OK if you've got chunks of stag or bone slabs. Strong tea still looks an option though.

Regards, Will

I am with you 100%, Will. I just couldn't do it to stag... well maybe...

I am wondering if I have found another use for Rough Rider knives. They have stag handled knives for as little as $10 for a fixed blade with sheath. I could experiment on it, then put it in the tool box if I didn't like it. Just thinking out loud a bit.

I sure couldn't do that to any of my old German stag knives!

Robert

 

[pistonsandgears]

So after seeing this thread I got to thinking that it might be fun to try a dye job on some white smooth bone.
Initially I was thinking it would be fun to try on one of the #15 pattern knives with the white smooth bone and I set out looking for one but then I sort of chickened out on using one of those for my first attempt at dyeing bone.
So I checked out a local knife store to see what inexpensive knife I could find with a smooth bone handle for the experiment and ended up picking up this 4" Ocoee River Barlow for $12. I would say the knife itself is right in line with what I have seen from the Rough Rider knives, fairly decent for the price.

Another project I had been contemplating aside from dyeing the bone was creating a rat tail bolster, so the first thing I did with the knife was to put it in the vice and take a file to the bolsters.

What I was hoping for on the dye job was maybe something along the lines of what I have seen on some of the recent Northwoods smooth camel bone knives I have seen.
After reading This Thread I commenced my attempt at dyeing the handles.
I picked up a bottle of liquid dark green Rit dye and poured the whole bottle in a sauce pan, added a few drops of dish soap and got it simmering. I then put the knife into the dye and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. I took it out and checked it out and then put it back in for another 15 minutes. The handles didn't pick up the dye quite like I thought they would. I noticed they seemed to be picking up a lot more dye at the edges. Anyway I don't think the knife turned out too terrible but I am still a bit hesitant to try the process on something more costly. Still thinking about what I might be able to do to improve the dye job.

After taking this picture I put a buffing wheel on a dremel tool, loaded it with some green buffing compound and buffed the bolsters where I filed them nice and smooth.

 

[pipedreams308]

That turned out great!