Stag Handle Care

[Whitehorn]

Question

Recommend anything to help preserve or condition stag handle material? Should I be concerned or just keep it clean and dry.

Thanks in advance.

 

[JD Mandrell]

The only thing I ever use is to wipe it down periodically with food grade mineral oil, sold at any pharmacy as a laxative.

A few drops on a cloth and wipe sown the whole knife every few months seems to keep mine looking nice.

 

[Keith Montgomery]

I also use mineral oil. I let the mineral oil sit on the stag for an hour or so and then I whipe the handle down real well. After that I apply some Ren Wax. Seems to have been doing an excellent job. I live in a dry climate and have not seen any shrinkage or cracking.

 

[Danbo]

I go even further with the mineral oil. I fill a tall glass with mineral oil, and let the knife handle actually sit in it for a couple of days. Total mess, but the results are worth it to me. The stag darkens slightly, and picks up really nice carmel like colors, almost ivory like.

 

[JD Mandrell]

I go even further with the mineral oil. I fill a tall glass with mineral oil, and let the knife handle actually sit in it for a couple of days. Total mess, but the results are worth it to me. The stag darkens slightly, and picks up really nice carmel like colors, almost ivory like.

I gotta try that someday, I actually like that darker color.

 

[rev_jch]

a "very light" coat of 100% mineral oil will do the trick. bear in mind it will darken the stag very "slightly".

 

[Whitehorn]

Thanks for the feedback..

I will definitely pick up a bottle of mineral oil and try light coats before I start submerging.

Would mineral oil be a good idea on rosewood? Or would linseed oil be much better for wood.

 

[Jeff Clark]

Mineral oil is a good general purpose treatment for wood handles. It is basically parafin oil (liquid candle wax) so it is very stable.

 

[rev_jch]

linseed oil is good, you can also use tuffglide, or any gun/knife oil. You can also use ren. wax.

 

[brownshoe]

I wonder if you need to do anything at all with stag. I have a stag knife that is about 60 years old. It's a german copy of the marble ideal pattern. It's never been treated with anything and is in fine shape. It had hard use as a hunting blade for about the first 40 years of its life until some fool threw it into a barn door and broke off the first 1". It sat outside on the ground for at least a few months in upstate NY. My uncle found it, reprofiled the tip and gave it to me. It's actually more useful as a 6" knife than the 7" or 8" blade it was originally.

Linseed oil drys and forms a polymer which is why it is such a good wood preservative. The polymer repels water, that's why its used for wooden bowls, spoons and chopping blocks. However, it does change the color of wood and thus may discolor your stag. Most natural oils (e.g. olive, linseed, etc.) can oxidize with time and are not good perservatives. Mineral oil, being a petroleum product, is a much more inert oil and it won't oxidize nor polymerize. However, it can act as a carrier of dirt or metal shavings from sharpening, so make sure anything you treat with it is clean to begin with.

 

[Danbo]

Brownshoe, I do it on my stag knives, because sometime(ok, always) the stag shrinks up to the point where you can feel the spacers and guard. Soaking in mineral oil swells the stag back up to where you can no longer feel this shrinkage.

 

[george tichbourne]

I was just watching a documentary on Stonehenge and they showed some stag picks that were 4500 years old. They were bleached but surface texture was intact and the picks looked solid.

Just keep stag hydrated with oil or moisture and it will last. I have a customer in New Mexico who keeps his stag handled knives in an old cigar humidor to keep the handles from drying out and shrinking.

 

[dylan_d]

Would there be any harm in soaking the butt end of a slip joint in mineral oil for an hour or two? Or is it like some other oils in that it will help lube and even protect the steel in the handle?

 

[rev_jch]

you dont want to soak your stag in linseed oil!!! Only a little mineral oil.

I would not submerge a folder into any oil, or subtsance. The reason why is too much lubricant will attract dirt and lint.

You do not have to treat stag handles, I have many I have never treated that are fine. Stag though, is much like a damascus blade no two pieces are exactly alike. You may have one that has allot of cracks, one that has little, one that may have no cracks. Much of this depends what type of climate you are in. An extremely dry climate may want you to lightly coat a handle that has some cracks in it. Stag shrinks and it expands with humditity and temperature change, so does bone, its a natural material its going to.

 

[Danbo]

Would there be any harm in soaking the butt end of a slip joint in mineral oil for an hour or two? Or is it like some other oils in that it will help lube and even protect the steel in the handle?

No harm at all. Other than the mess of cleaning it up.

I do it all the time.