Whale Bone Experiment

P

Phil Tham

Joined
Jan 8, 2002
Messages
849
A friend gave me a disc out of a whale vertibra to use for knife handles. I thought I'd give it a shot, but the bone is a little pithy and very light. Anyhow, I didn't like the texture and decided to put a coat of drakes leather finish on it. It turned out splotchy, but where it "took" it colored the bone a purplish color. Take a look and see what you think. I like it.

104l.jpg
 
I like it. Bone should be splotchy. That's a lot of it's charm. On one of the next ones, try to soak it in very strong coffee for a day or 2. You could even brew the coffee in alchol instead of water. Gives it a nice aged look.

Your a lucky fellow to have friends who get whale bones. I've been thinking about driving to Bruce Bumps neck of the woods and catching one.:D
 
Verry good knife, I like it !

I seek whale bones for a long time but I do not find it.
Did somebody know a place where I can buy some?

Alain M-D
 
Very nice. The whole knife has a flow to it and the bone realy works well with it.

If the bone is a little on the light and peffy side you might try haveing it stablized or maybe coating with super thin supper glue. Don't know, all the bone I've used won't take most stains for the most part, not to that degree anyway. I'll have to give the coffee soak a try.

Must be nice to have friends that can come up with Whale bone. Seems like I've seen anougther maker in Blade or KI who used a lot of whale bone on rustic knives forged from files. They looked kinda specled.
 
Woodchip That is a beauty!!

Peter. I have a 10 foot livingston boat. If you come over we could go whaling.
 
Thanks for the kind words on the knife. Every once in a while one of my hair brained ideas turns out OK. I'll have to give that coffee thing a try. I still have a little of that bone left. It does help to have friends that will look out for stuff like that for ya. Super glue does help as well, but be sure to add it after you do the coloring.
 
dont want to rain on you parade but there is something called the marine mammal protection act. that makes a big grey area about owning teeth and bone of these creatures. i have a sperm whale tooth that i wont use for a handle because if i got challanged on it at a show by officals looking for ivory etc, i could loose the knife. i have no paper work. the fossilised stuff is o.k. just wanted you to know. if you read up on it i might be wrong? but having to hire a attorney to prove i am right is not my idea of fun.:(
 
Thanks for the heads up. My friend said he picked it up on the beach where there were lots of bone fragments layin around. I never thought about it being possibly illegal to own.
 
Well the stuff in the website is fosselized (make that rock) I tried a year or so to use the stuff but in addition to stinking to high heaven when it is worked, it is brittle. I had some luck stabalizing it with straight West system epoxy but it always looked like plastic when I finished.

I wouldn't worry too much about having it taken other than at gun or knife shows. I use a lot of pre-ban elephant and have never had a problem. I've even given a couple of knives to US Fish and Wildlife people and all they say is thank you. The way I understand it, you do not have to have papers on the pre ban stuff, just advertise it as pre ban. The burdon of proof is on the government to prove it is NOT pre ban.
 
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