Case tested

[GP Hill]

I just acquired a Case tested jack knife with green bone handles, or should I say partial green bone handles. These are beyond saving so I am looking for some new bone to go on this knife. Does Culpepper make anything close to the old Case green bone? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[zp4ja]

GP,

Please provide a pic if you can. I would love to see CASE Green Bone that is "beyond saving". At the very least, try to salvage the handles as much as possible for maybe rebuilding another oldie.

Jerry

[Ramrod]

GP,
Not trying to be a smart alec here but,
No, they dont make anything close to the original green bone. No one does.
Mark

[orvet]

GP,
Not trying to be a smart alec here but,
No, they dont make anything close to the original green bone. No one does.
Mark

You are right on the money there Mark!


Matching old jigged bone is nearly impossible because of the effect of time, wear and the effect of the oils on the user’s hands as well as other substances a knife may come in contact with. New jigged bone looks MUCH different before it goes on the knife. Even with colors & patterns I have worked with numerous times they always come out differently. Usually they are very similar, but sometimes that are much different, even two pieces of bone from the same set of handles.

What I do is choose a color & jigging is similar to what I want but darker in color (it will get lighter when hafted). If the jigging is too deep you can sand it down and make it look like old worn bone handles. If necessary you can even add in some new jigging to simulate the old jigging pattern. You can also experiment with adding some dye to the knife after the handles are installed, just be sure you remove all wax or finish on the bone as the dye can’t penetrate it

[reddirtknives]

I heard someone say EPA regulations makes it impossible to achieve the old Case red bone Call me crazy but I have a hunch Case has their bone died in China anyway if they don't just wait a few minutes. I would love to be proved wrong on my hunch by the way…

[just bob]

Don't know about the green bone but when I went to the guild show in Louisville I got to meet and speak with the husband and wife team from Culpepper
(nice people!)
I took a pc of Case red bone I wanted to match and he told me I was out of luck. The closest thing they had was the Richmond pattern. He told me to work the top with sandpaper and then cut the thickness from the bottom. I bought some and tried that and in my opinion is isn't even close to what I was trying to achieve.
They had some close outs there and I bought some. In these the closest I have found to the Case jigging I wanted is Antique Sheffield Green - they do not offer this in red.


There is a guy in Lexington that has over 200 sets of the old worm groove bone in some killer colors. He told me it was like they used on the old Catt's. He does
not use the Internet. If you don't have any luck finding any bone you want pm me and I'll give you his phone number. Maybe he can help you.

[just bob]

One other thing. I asked them about saw cut bone and she told me they were in the process of making a huge order for Case of saw cut bone. I think this was the new Rancher series knives. There are many on ebay. Anyway at least on this lot and for this order they were not died in China and were made right here in the good old USA. Some of the close outs I bought from them were also made for Case knives so I feel pretty certain they have made others.

[orvet]

I am pretty sure Culpepper made the Case Christmas tree jigged bone and the barbwire jigged bone.
I have purchased overruns of those patterns from Culpeppers.

[reddirtknives]

I have a friend who sent Culp™*EDIT™*per about 300 sets of bone to have jigged and dyed along with samples of the jigging he wanted and color. They said no problem on color or pattern but, it will be a lot cheaper for us to send it to China for the work than to have it done here. But, you will have to pay up front. My friend said as long as it is what I want and what you said you can do I don't really care where it is done. When he received the order and looked at the work he was sick to his stomach. Niether the jigging or color were close to what he wanted. He called them up and I think they told him that it was as close to both the jig and color as was possible. He was pretty mad about it because he just paid to have all of his blank sets of bone turned into something other than what he wanted and when he asked them if they could make it right I believe the answer was no we're sorry. There are a couple lessons in this story somewhere. I don't know exactly why he had to pay up front since he was providing the blanks himself, and do to this would without a doubt have paid for the work when finished provided it was what he wanted. If it was old bone colors and jig patterns that can never be reproduced then they should have explained that it was impossible rather then saying "no problem and our friends in China can do it for cheaper than we can here in the USA". So, do you think it's possible that a US company can feel guilt free and can say made in the USA when using a middleman based in the US who has the work done in China? If it is okay then just where does it end? How about things made in china and then sent in bulk to the USA where it is then packaged for individual sale? Can or should the items say USA? What if they are using packaging materials also made in China? How about the same scenario but the name GERMANY is on the product and the packaging (ehem cough BOKER cough)?