Can anybody share how to take care a stag handled knife? I only have one, it is a fixed blade, and seems that the stag is shrinking. Is it normal? what should I do to stop the shrinking? I have seen a lot of very old knives with stag and bone handle around here, but they all looks good, no sign of shrinkage.. so what's wrong with my knife?
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Stag Handle Care
- Thread starter danielp
- Start date
Will Power
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2007
- Messages
- 33,363
Some of this depends on the conditions you keep the knife in(and if it is a very old knife too).Extremely dry rooms maybe good for keeping rust off but it does bone,horn or stag no favours at all.Wood handles suffer badly in dry heat too.I had a Bark River in bocote wood shrink away from the tang from keeping it in my town flat,it's ferociously hot and dry to cope with our Scandinavian winters.At the old country house which is cold,the wood went back to normal due to the high humidity.
Stag and bone/horn all respond well to an overnight soaking in mineral oil and drying off with a rag the next day,a quick rub down with mineral oil once a month will help thereafter.It enhances and darkens the colour of bone(depending on dye colour)and stag,helps make it more supple and less likely to shrink or crack.Careful not to drop it when oily though
Stag and bone/horn all respond well to an overnight soaking in mineral oil and drying off with a rag the next day,a quick rub down with mineral oil once a month will help thereafter.It enhances and darkens the colour of bone(depending on dye colour)and stag,helps make it more supple and less likely to shrink or crack.Careful not to drop it when oily though