Working Red Buffalo Horn for handles

D

Deaths Head

Joined
Dec 7, 2008
Messages
4
I was making some handle pieces with some beautiful red buffalo horn and anything I touched to the sander turned yellow, all the red is gone.
I have to assume that it's from the heat, but even being careful and going very slow it changed. It cut fine on my bandsaw. Am I stuck with only files to shape this?
Thanks for any help. Was in the middle of a project and had to rethink everything.
 
Welcome to shop talk
I havent seen red buffalo unless it like the scales I bought a few years ago at the Bladeshow. I got screwed on them. They are beautiful red until I grind the surface off and they are plain black inside. I got mad and tossed them in the corner. I wanted red.
Can you post a picture of yours? I dont believe you can dye buffalo but I might be wrong. The yellow sounds like dull belts.
 
I bought some of those red scales a while back and found out it was only on the surface. Some good horn underneath though so it wasn't a total loss.

Dull belts will scorch the horn yellowish brown, just shape it with new belts and sand off any scorches by hand.

George
 
I bought some red water buffalo Horn scales and after hand sanding they were black inside just like you described and I was pissed off .I think it is B.S. that there is red horn that you can buy.Just my 02 cents.
 
Sounds like they painted the Horn, I've never heard of Red WB horn, hard to die black horn unless you can bleach it, which I think weakens it.
 
I would say that it was in the dyeing process, not being held in the solution long enough. I have seen this happen before. But you can re-dye the horn yourself. Just make sure you leave in the solution at least for 12 hours. I would suggest placing the horn between two pieces of wood and clamping down for at least a week. This will help in the straightening and allow for the time to finish drying. Sorry to hear about that. I played in that movie about three years ago. And by the way Welcome to Bladforums. I hope this was of help to you and Merry Christmas, New Year ------------ :thumbup:

Terry
 
Thank you for the advice.
I have another set of scales, I will try them with fresh belts and see if that makes any difference. I bought these from Texas Knifemakers Supply. I've had no problem working the Black Buffalo horn, but this red looked wonerful when I started and horrible when I tried to shape it. If nothing else I'll just stick to files if I want to work with it.
S6302052.jpg
 
Deaths Head said:
Thank you for the advice.
I have another set of scales, I will try them with fresh belts and see if that makes any difference. I bought these from Texas Knifemakers Supply. I've had no problem working the Black Buffalo horn, but this red looked wonerful when I started and horrible when I tried to shape it. If nothing else I'll just stick to files if I want to work with it.
S6302052.jpg
Click to expand...

Yep that looks like the same stuff I bought. It is only surface dyed. I like black buffalo horn but they shouldnt sell it as red horn.
 
I don't even think it is a dye . With the ones I had it was more like a dipped on coating . Softer than the horn itself .
 
Work it from the back like you would a nicely colored ivory and you will save allot of the color.If the horn is honey colored before it is dyed then turn the dyed side down and work the honey colored part and when you polish it up you will get a translucent red color through the horn.Or just get the honey colored scales and cut your pieces you want and get them to almost finished size then dye them yourself and let dry then finish and you should get a nice red color....Personaly I dont think horn should be dyed but left it's natural olor and if anything a spacer of N/S or silver behind it to shine light through the horn.
Just my 2 cents worth on this.
Bruce
 
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When you guys speak of dye do you mean something like fabric dye? Or maybe soaking in red ink?

Might be more trouble than it's worth. There are always different Red colored materials I can use.
 
I bought some of that a year or two ago... the dye came right off when wet sanding... or maybe it was acetone... been a while. took me a good five minutes to convince myself I didn't cut myself on something...my hands looked like something right out of a horror movie. Too bad though... looked pretty before I started working it. Lessons learned, I guess.

-Mark
 
gday ive used "red buffalo horn" before not sure how the process is done but the dye will only absorb into the horn a few millimeters, so you cant sand down to much. If your carefull and buy pieces close to the finished size helps alot.
 
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