stag cut?

[byersj79]

What does "1st cut stag" or "2nd cut stag" mean for stag handle knives? If there's more cuts I also like to hear about them. Thanks

 

[navihawk]

I would be curious about this question also.I have always thought first cut was the outside surface while second cut was below that, or is it just first cut is the choice pieces and second cut is the remaining less appealing pieces.

 

[jstewart16701]

First cut is the outside layer, with the natural bark, ruts, etc. it's what we think of when we think stag. Second cut stag is the inner part of the antler left over from when the outer layer is cut off, which is then jigged like bone handles.

Jamie

 

[knifeaholic]

I have heard two different stories, at least for the second cut stag that Case used from the 40's through the 60's.

One was as the other poster stated, that it was the second layer after the outer "bark" layer was cut off for use as a handle. The second layer was then jigged and dyed with some of it colored like bone and used on bone handled knives and some of it colored like stag and used on stag handled knives.

The other story was that it was never the second layer but that there was some percentage of raw stag received that had no "character" or "barrk" texture at all and this smooth stag was saved up and then slabbed, jigged and dyed simil.ar to the way bone handles were processed.

I

 

[zerogee]

I have heard two different stories, at least for the second cut stag that Case used from the 40's through the 60's.
....
The other story was that it was never the second layer but that there was some percentage of raw stag received that had no "character" or "bark" texture at all and this smooth stag was saved up and then slabbed, jigged and dyed similar to the way bone handles were processed.

This makes more sense to me, from a production point of view - when you look at stag antlers, there are very few with the thickness necessary to take two slabs of sufficient width, length, and thickness to do actual "second cut" stag (and remember - you would be doing this on *both* sides of the antler). The area where they would be this thick would be right at the base, and you *might* get one pair of actual second cut slabs per antler.

In practice, I'll bet they actually did it both ways, since there's no need to waste good material. But I'd expect the vast majority of the "second cut" material was from the "smooth" stag.

 

[fasteddie]

+1 on knifeaholics explanation. I've heard the same thing.

 

[navihawk]

Some companies use the good piece on one side and a not so good piece on the other. I have a Bulldog sowbelly with average looking stag, so it ended up as a user.

 

[DaveinNY]

This was Bernard Levine's explanation of 2nd cut stag.
"Re-cut stag" (called second-cut stag by collectors of Case knives) is what is left of stag (antler) after the outer 'bark' is slabbed off for making handle scales. It is hard and dense like bone (anatomically it IS bone, except being faster growing than bone, it has larger pores -- the pores in bone are called Haversian canals).

This inner stag is cut with chisels (manual or mechanical) to produce a texture that looks superficially like stag bark. Inner stag is naturally white (being bone), so to make it look more stag-like, its surface is dyed brown, usually with potassium permanganate -- which is deep purple in high concentrations, but looks dark brown applied to bone.