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Dyeing Bone: A Tutorial
- Thread starter jamesbeat
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jrabalais -- Attachments are a feature for paying members. It's really not too hard to post images using a free hosting site such as photobucket.com. Instead of uploading from your camera directly to BladeForums, upload to photobucket. After your pictures are uploaded to photobucket, copy the IMG code and paste it into your post. If you need assistance, let someone know. We'll be glad to help.
Thanks for the PhotoBucket advice, MMM!
I was orginally just wanting to say I tried dyeing (dying)? an old 1990s bone handle pocketknife. As a test, I tried this out on an old, cheap, plain bone-handled pocketknife made in Pakistan, which I carried for about five or ten years as a college student in the 1990s. I know I should be ashamed, but that cheap knife was a real workhorse for me over the years, and it still feels quite solid, even if it is not finely finished. I got good use out of it.
OK, so this pocketknife was old, and the bone handles were a little dry, rough, and unfinished. I found it in a drawer 20 years after I stored it there, and I decided to give it a little new life with some color and maybe a little polish.
Sorry, I did not take any "before" photos, but just imagine an old smooth, chalky, dry, poorly finished, bone handle knife as my starting point.
So, since the knife was an old cheap throwaway anyway, I decided to sand/polish the semi-smooth bone handles down with 600 grit aluminum oxide sandpaper, like used on finishing/polishing auto paint jobs. I wanted to open the bone pores and give it a little bit more of a shine. After wiping off the sanding dust, I used a cotton swab to apply lots of the yellow food coloring sold by McCormick's in the spice isle at the grocery store. I found the cotton swabs did not work very well, and that there is nothing better than my good, old fingertips for rubbing in almost anything. So, I used my fingers to thoroughly rub in two or three coats on each side. The dye comes off the fingers in a couple of days.
I then used another cotton swab on top of the yellow to try to target the center part of both the handles with red McCormick food coloring from the same box. I was trying for what I was hoping would be a "Tequila Sunrise" effect, but I did not like it. I then went over the center with another two or three rubbings of McCormick yellow to mellow it down, and ended up with the burnt orange color seen in the photos. I rather like this color and just consider it my serindipity.
I finished the handle with light mineral oil, using my fingers as the applicator as I came to prefer. A little beeswax (GulfWax) rubbed in and buffed out makes it shine.
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That turned out really well. Has the color held up with use? By the way, Welcome to BladeForums!
Probably meandering to the wrong thread here, but to continue giving new life to my old college pocketknife:
After dyeing the handle, I decided to go ahead and try to polish the blades to make it even prettier. This is just the way I did it on the old, cheap test knife, so be careful if you decide to try this.
Once again, I did not take any "before" photos (my bad), but I did only polish one of the two blades before snapping a photo. This gives a pretty good contrast between the unpolished and newly polished blades.
So, all I did was lightly sand down the blade with #600 metal oxide sandpaper to try to polish out the years' worth of scratches. I used this grade because that is the finest I had on hand. Perhaps a finer grade would have worked better, but I like the way it came out.
Then I wound an old scrap strip of denim around a drill bit to make an improvised buffer (old jeans make excellent rags and jean patches and other stuff). So, I then polished the blade with the denim-tipped drill (use the flat side of the denim, not the tip). I learned that it is important to pay attention to the rotation of the drill versus the blade, or the drill will snag on the blade point and jerk it out of your hand. I buffed it quite a few times until I was satisfied. I may even do it a few times more, but so far, it looks way better than before. Sorry about the fuzzy photo...
My blade polishing did dull the blade a little, but a quick sharpening brought it right back to life. Since I nicked my middle finger before the resharpening, I suppose it was still pretty darned sharp. And yes, I like to keep my blades ridiculousy sharp for some reason. Just a quirk of mine; do it right, or do not do it at all.
Since photos of shiny objects rarely come out right for me, I hope this is a good one. I hope this before and after photo (actually a blade comparison) does my work justice. Can you tell which blade I polished? I bet you can. I am very pleased with the final result. I think I will polish the other blade tomorrow.
Once again, do this at your own risk... I may add the "finished" photo later with both blades polished.
ADDED 03/21/2013:
OK, so here is the final photo with both blades polished:
After dyeing the handle, I decided to go ahead and try to polish the blades to make it even prettier. This is just the way I did it on the old, cheap test knife, so be careful if you decide to try this.
Once again, I did not take any "before" photos (my bad), but I did only polish one of the two blades before snapping a photo. This gives a pretty good contrast between the unpolished and newly polished blades.
So, all I did was lightly sand down the blade with #600 metal oxide sandpaper to try to polish out the years' worth of scratches. I used this grade because that is the finest I had on hand. Perhaps a finer grade would have worked better, but I like the way it came out.
Then I wound an old scrap strip of denim around a drill bit to make an improvised buffer (old jeans make excellent rags and jean patches and other stuff). So, I then polished the blade with the denim-tipped drill (use the flat side of the denim, not the tip). I learned that it is important to pay attention to the rotation of the drill versus the blade, or the drill will snag on the blade point and jerk it out of your hand. I buffed it quite a few times until I was satisfied. I may even do it a few times more, but so far, it looks way better than before. Sorry about the fuzzy photo...
My blade polishing did dull the blade a little, but a quick sharpening brought it right back to life. Since I nicked my middle finger before the resharpening, I suppose it was still pretty darned sharp. And yes, I like to keep my blades ridiculousy sharp for some reason. Just a quirk of mine; do it right, or do not do it at all.
Since photos of shiny objects rarely come out right for me, I hope this is a good one. I hope this before and after photo (actually a blade comparison) does my work justice. Can you tell which blade I polished? I bet you can. I am very pleased with the final result. I think I will polish the other blade tomorrow.
Once again, do this at your own risk... I may add the "finished" photo later with both blades polished.
ADDED 03/21/2013:
OK, so here is the final photo with both blades polished:
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- Jun 13, 2007
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Cool! Never thought about bone as I've never owned a bone scaled knife, but it certainly makes sense.
On Delrin, FRN and G10 I don't find the salt to be necessary. I DO add a bit of white (plain) vinegar however.
G10 can be a bear to dye and I find it best to choose a color at least one shade lighter than your goal if you are starting with a scale that is not white. With G10, boiling is needed. You can probably get away with a bath that is shy of boiling when dying FRN or Delrin as they are more accepting of color.
As I've mentioned in other threads, it has been reported that you can in fact go back to your original color by using Rit color remover. I don't have anything to test to confirm this, but the next time I'm at Walmart I'm going to pick up a box and try to remove different colors from some test pieces. I may only have UHMW to test this with so I still won't be able to confirm it with common scale materials, but it should still prove interesting.
If anyone ever needs any help with their dying don't hesitate to pm or email me.
On Delrin, FRN and G10 I don't find the salt to be necessary. I DO add a bit of white (plain) vinegar however.
G10 can be a bear to dye and I find it best to choose a color at least one shade lighter than your goal if you are starting with a scale that is not white. With G10, boiling is needed. You can probably get away with a bath that is shy of boiling when dying FRN or Delrin as they are more accepting of color.
As I've mentioned in other threads, it has been reported that you can in fact go back to your original color by using Rit color remover. I don't have anything to test to confirm this, but the next time I'm at Walmart I'm going to pick up a box and try to remove different colors from some test pieces. I may only have UHMW to test this with so I still won't be able to confirm it with common scale materials, but it should still prove interesting.
If anyone ever needs any help with their dying don't hesitate to pm or email me.
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2012
- Messages
- 8,799
Case Medium Jack in Winterbottom Sunset Bone, 62032 SS.
Catalog image:
What I actually received:
Front:
Back:
My procedure was similar to those in this thread. Washed the knife with Dawn liquid soap to degrease. Boiled some water in a kettle. Put enough hot water from the kettle into a saucepan to cover the knife, over low heat. Added a little Dawn dishwashing liquid soap. Added one capful each of RIT liquid dye in Scarlet and Dark Cocoa Brown. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes, then rinsed it off with hot water. I wasn't quite happy with the color, a bit too pinkish. So I repeated the entire process using only the Cocoa Brown dye, 2 capfuls. Cleaned it up, oiled thoroughly with WD-40 Silicone spray and some EEzox, hand buffed the bolsters and back springs with Simichrome paste, and finished up with Renaissance Wax.
After dyeing with RIT dye, here is the result, a nice Chestnut brown with some hints of red, depending on the lighting.
Direct sunlight:
Indirect sunlight (same knife, same day, just in a shady area of the yard):
Catalog image:
What I actually received:
Front:
Back:
My procedure was similar to those in this thread. Washed the knife with Dawn liquid soap to degrease. Boiled some water in a kettle. Put enough hot water from the kettle into a saucepan to cover the knife, over low heat. Added a little Dawn dishwashing liquid soap. Added one capful each of RIT liquid dye in Scarlet and Dark Cocoa Brown. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes, then rinsed it off with hot water. I wasn't quite happy with the color, a bit too pinkish. So I repeated the entire process using only the Cocoa Brown dye, 2 capfuls. Cleaned it up, oiled thoroughly with WD-40 Silicone spray and some EEzox, hand buffed the bolsters and back springs with Simichrome paste, and finished up with Renaissance Wax.
After dyeing with RIT dye, here is the result, a nice Chestnut brown with some hints of red, depending on the lighting.
Direct sunlight:
Indirect sunlight (same knife, same day, just in a shady area of the yard):
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- Joined
- Oct 7, 2010
- Messages
- 181
Thought I'd bump this thread with some pictures of my dye job today. The knife is a curved regular jack from AG Russell with bone scales. I carry this knife regularly and like it very much, although I've never been in love with the color of the scales. I followed the instructions of several above with pretty good results. I didn't want to put the blade and pivot in the dye, so I made up the little oak jig to hold the knife suspended in the saucepan and dye. I used Rit liquid scarlet (2 caps full) and dark brown (1.5 caps full) dye in a pretty large amount of water. I kept the knife in the dye for about 15 minutes. Temp was just under a rolling boil. I may hit it again with some more brown and see if I can darken it up just a little more, but overall I'm happy with the results.
Chris-
This picture shows the oak jig I made up and also the original color of the bone.
In the dye pot:
And the final product:
Chris-
This picture shows the oak jig I made up and also the original color of the bone.
In the dye pot:
And the final product:
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2007
- Messages
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I'm very curious about how that Sodbuster Jr got dyed. I tried dying mine a while back and it didn't take at all. I've read that others had the same problem. I've also read that the handle is not real Delrin, which makes sense to me since I've dyed a bunch and have always had good results.
Anyone know anything about this?
As an aside, my blade is cv, so I was a little worried about pitting/rusting. It's possible that I didn't keep it in the bath long enough I suppose. I'd rather have a good blade with ugly handles than a pitted blade with a sweet grip.
Anyone know anything about this?
As an aside, my blade is cv, so I was a little worried about pitting/rusting. It's possible that I didn't keep it in the bath long enough I suppose. I'd rather have a good blade with ugly handles than a pitted blade with a sweet grip.
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- Mar 25, 2012
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- 9,286
ALLHSS, That looks really good! I am going to have to try this on a RR I have.
Thanks man, I think the black really classes it up along with the brass pins and scales.
MadMaximus
Platinum Member
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- Feb 26, 2014
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- 318
Well I just stumbled on to this thread because I was also a victim of the poor dye of a chestnut bone Case knife. I will be doing this tonight, can't decide if I want to try brown or go with black...
Here is my before Pic...It actually doesn't look that bad in the pic, but with different lighting it's horrid. Thank you for this post.
Here is my before Pic...It actually doesn't look that bad in the pic, but with different lighting it's horrid. Thank you for this post.
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2013
- Messages
- 238
Well I just stumbled on to this thread because I was also a victim of the poor dye of a chestnut bone Case knife. I will be doing this tonight, can't decide if I want to try brown or go with black...
Here is my before Pic...It actually doesn't look that bad in the pic, but with different lighting it's horrid. Thank you for this post.
I have a Chestnut Bone Peanut that looks good on one side, but the other is very poor. With the Info here, need to pick up some dye and find time and the nerve to even it out and change another knife's color also. Thanks All
Don
So I finally tried this. The russlock was actually slightly lighter than the slimline shown....of course I forgot the original photo. I used the method on page one, however i used water soluble andaline dye shown below, no salt!, boiled for 30 min. Let soak for 15 min. Very pleased! The handles swelled slightly at first, but as they dried back to perfection. The slimline will under go the pot today. Post pictures soon.
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