Thanks Byrd! Well, I’ve pretty much finished the chicken coop and painted a cat portrait by the time I started my week long thanksgiving break.
So, originally I had decided to go back with faux ivory, then it was suggested that I go back with bone. I liked the bone idea better. I knew this would be a massive undertaking but I also knew that I would learn a lot in the process... this was definitely not a plug and play project and I didn’t have much to work with.
I decided to use one bone slab as a test piece and use the other nicer looking bone as my slabs. I had just enough width to cut two pieces from one slab. My thinking was that the two slabs would be, for the most part, identical in grain and color.
Of course I took my time and sawed it but hand so I wouldn’t be in a hurry and make a mistake with the band saw. So that took some time. I also had some mineral spirits left over from painting so I through the knife in to loosen up any old grease oil and lint.
80+ years and you could make soup of what settled out from that old pocket knife.
So while the knife cooking in the mineral spirits I tried my best to compensate for the shrinkage and tape together the remnants of the celluloid handle for a template.
I then taped the template to the bone slabs and use a one-sixteenths bit to drill the pin holes.
I noticed that one of the tiny pins fell out that was holding one of the buttons in place. I had originally decided not to disassemble the knife more than was absolutely necessary but I decided to carefully drive out the pin on the other side as well to clean everything a bit more thoroughly than the spirits could do alone.
Now, I knew that the odds of the bone being the correct thickness from the manufacturer was highly unlikely. But I don’t own another knife like this and don’t know anyone who does so I stilled a YouTube video and estimated the thickness.
I just want to mention that if you don’t own calipers, do yourself a favor and go pick up a set. Also for a project like this you will probably want a dremel set, a portable drill press, bench sander, band saw, pliers, wet/dry sandpaper and a ball peen hammer... for when you need to hit something because your bone slab split in half while drilling a pin hole. Yes, that happened to me. Fortunately, I had that test piece of bone left.
Next comes the hours of thinning the slabs and routing the holes for the buttons and locks.
I would periodically hold the scales to the light to see my thin spots.
St. John Chapter 1
...12 But as many as received him (Jesus), to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God...