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- Jun 3, 2015
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I while back I reneged on an early reserve I'd placed with CK Knives, for the latest jig bone beer scout. I didn't really mean to do this, it just turned out I'd reserved it using a different email address, and I'd failed to cancel it when the photos of jig bone turned out not to my liking. Plus the early reserve was up for around 6 months. After some discussion, CK Knives turned out fine with this. Not long after, I realized that this particular beer scout presented a perfect opportunity to 'mod' a knife to my liking. (CK knives, please don't scrub me, I bought this knife from you after all!).
As those of you who follow my posts know (jokes) I recently had some really good success dyeing a couple of stainless GECs. Here is the thread. http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1387206-RIT-dye-bone-handled-GEC
This was easy enough with stainless knives, but of course 1095 presents a different kind of challenge. As the former thread indicates, I'd even managed to stain a stainless knife in the process of dyeing it, so I was not confident that dunking a 1095 knife in a pot of boiling water would work.
However, as the photos show, this did work, and worked quite well.
The basic method was - boil about 1 litre of water. Add 4 teaspoons of RIT dark brown dye. Bring to boil and boil for a few minutes, stirring to ensure all the dye is fully dissolved. Suspend knife using an upside down coat hanger through the bail (the bail certainly makes this part easy). Boil for about 6 minutes. Check. Boil another minute or so. Take out and furiously dry with a cloth. Place knife in an oil bath. Clean, dry, admire.
From this
To this:
I am overall pleased with the result. But not that pleased. The good aspect is that it now fits in with the rest of my scouts. It looks more like a traditional knife should.
The issue I have is that you lose the contrast between the light and dark areas of bone that you get with a knife that has been dyed before being ground to final shape. The knife loses some of its visual appeal and looks a bit drab. I may take some sandpaper to this bone, closest to the bolster, to try and rectify this, but I'm not in a rush to do so. Another option would be to suspend the knife higher in the pot, so that part of the bone is not directly exposed to the dye.
For those interested, I did not get any rust or staining on this knife, but for a small amount in the underside of the tang which I didn't check carefully enough when drying. The knife did not spontaneously decide to rust while in the dye bath as I had feared it might.
So your challenge, you have now seen the inaugural brown scout. If game, buy some RIT dye, dye your beer scout and see if you can improve on these results!
As those of you who follow my posts know (jokes) I recently had some really good success dyeing a couple of stainless GECs. Here is the thread. http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1387206-RIT-dye-bone-handled-GEC
This was easy enough with stainless knives, but of course 1095 presents a different kind of challenge. As the former thread indicates, I'd even managed to stain a stainless knife in the process of dyeing it, so I was not confident that dunking a 1095 knife in a pot of boiling water would work.
However, as the photos show, this did work, and worked quite well.
The basic method was - boil about 1 litre of water. Add 4 teaspoons of RIT dark brown dye. Bring to boil and boil for a few minutes, stirring to ensure all the dye is fully dissolved. Suspend knife using an upside down coat hanger through the bail (the bail certainly makes this part easy). Boil for about 6 minutes. Check. Boil another minute or so. Take out and furiously dry with a cloth. Place knife in an oil bath. Clean, dry, admire.
From this
To this:
I am overall pleased with the result. But not that pleased. The good aspect is that it now fits in with the rest of my scouts. It looks more like a traditional knife should.
The issue I have is that you lose the contrast between the light and dark areas of bone that you get with a knife that has been dyed before being ground to final shape. The knife loses some of its visual appeal and looks a bit drab. I may take some sandpaper to this bone, closest to the bolster, to try and rectify this, but I'm not in a rush to do so. Another option would be to suspend the knife higher in the pot, so that part of the bone is not directly exposed to the dye.
For those interested, I did not get any rust or staining on this knife, but for a small amount in the underside of the tang which I didn't check carefully enough when drying. The knife did not spontaneously decide to rust while in the dye bath as I had feared it might.
So your challenge, you have now seen the inaugural brown scout. If game, buy some RIT dye, dye your beer scout and see if you can improve on these results!
Personally, I like the more subtle contrast in color towards the bolster. Now I just have to gather up the courage to try it myself.