How Can You Go Wrong with Amber Stag?

[orvet]

I have a great affinity for the steel Western knives, especially the fixed blades. They seem to be able to find them fairly easy at my local flea market and I love to rescue these old lives and restore them to some of their former glory.

You me the judge and let me know how you like this one. I have known before pictures, because typically when I get these at the flea market part of the leather washers are missing and there are gaping hole in the handle. I usually finish removing the remainder of the leather handle so I can hang the knife more easily on the magnetic bar until I'm ready to restore it.

Of course the moisture and the heat that affects the leather handles of a Western #L66 also affects the original sheath. I was not fortunate enough to have a nearly new original sheath for the L66 but I did have an old Western tubular sheath I could use as a pattern. I made the sheath to the knife snugly and I even cover the snap on the strap with leather on the underside so the metal doesn't scratch the bone handle.
I was pleased with a sheath and very pleased with the knife.

I hope you enjoy the pictures.
Double click to enlarge pictures.

[kootenay joe]

Dale i have never seen a Western fixed blade that attractive before. It is a Stand Out ! Put it with a bunch of older but 'new' Western F.B.'s and this amber stag Western will jump up and grab the viewer.
Great knife. I love it !
kj

[sunknife]

That stag is just flat out gorgeous and blends perfectly with the colors of the spacers, plus it suits the overall style of the knife IMO. Excellent work on the sheath as well Dale.

[Doc B]

Oh wow! I thought the bird and trout 628 was nice...but this is a real knockout

[BWT]

Wow Dale excellent job and a beautiful knife, you really did an amazing job

[btrwtr]

Beautifully done Dale!

[tongueriver]

Top notch, Dale!

[glennbad]

Oh, that is SWEET!

[Steve Warden]

D) all of the above

Stunning! Simply STUNNING!!

[Colonel26]

Top notch again Dale! Fantastic work.

If I may ask a question, for the pins in the stag, do you drill through the tang and pin the scales through the tang, or sonthe pins just go through the stag?

[doglegg]

Dale you sure dressed that old one up. Great job and great stag.

[#goldpan]

Beautiful work Dale I have always loved Amber Stag. To answer your question. You cant go wrong with Amber Stag.

[eveled]

Funny you chose to start this thread now about that knife. I almost sent you a pm this morning to tell you how much I liked it. I saw it for sale and was glad it sold so I wasn’t tempted. Lol! Whoever bought it got a beautiful knife. Ed

[eveled]

To answer your implied question. This is how you go wrong with amber stag. This 110 is growing on me and is a good user, but it is not what I thought I was getting. Lol!

[orvet]

Thank you guys for your input and your kind comments.
I certainly appreciate the feedback. The amber stag is expensive, but everyone seems to like it, including me.
Your critique helps me justify the cost of the amber stag and I will be looking to buy some more of it.

Top notch again Dale! Fantastic work.

If I may ask a question, for the pins in the stag, do you drill through the tang and pin the scales through the tang, or sonthe pins just go through the stag?

To answer your question Wade, I'm always happy to share tips and techniques with people so they can enjoy the hobby of customizing and repairing knives.
This method applies to a Western knife of the bifurcated tang.
When I have the handle removed and the tang exposed I drill 4 holes for the pens. I center the the holes on each side of the bifurcated tang and move it up or down about 1/4" to 3/8" of an inch from the guard and the pommel.
It is important to drill them before you glue on the stag so that the holes are straight through the metal. If you glue one side of the handle on first before drilling it can cause the drill to veer to one side or another causing the pin holes to be out of alignment with one another or even too close to the edge of the handle material by the time it has gone through the second handle. A little angle at the wrong time can we would mess things up.
I use a jig I made for drilling so that I can clamp tang to the jig and make sure my hole through the first handle is perpendicular. When I glue on the second handle I have to drill down through the first handle, and the tang, before getting into the second strag handle. If everything is perpendicular before the drill enters the second handle oh, there is less tendency for the drill to wander. With 1/16 in drill it is easy for a hard bony piece of stag to bend the drill a little bit off course.

Here are some quick pictures of the jig in the way I would use it. Normally I use the jig when I have one set of handles installed, those would be on the side of the tang facing a four and I would clamp it snug against the jig so that I could drill straight through the existing all in the tang and straight down through the stag. Without the jig the drill tends to wander. The drill that is in the drill press is considerably larger than the #51 drill I used to drill the holes for 1/16th inch pin stock.

Here's a picture of some bifurcated tang Western knives that do not have the handles on them. The top knife in the picture already has the holes drilled in it to install the pins.
Hopefully this will give you an idea of what I'm talking about. If I'm not explaining it will, let me know and I will try tomorrow when I am arrested.

To answer your implied question. This is how you go wrong with amber stag. This 110 is growing on me and is a good user, but it is not what I thought I was getting. Lol!

Ed, that 110 doesn't look like any of Culpepper's amber stag that I have worked with. When I opened the bag the stag is almost black and and up getting dye all over my hands just from handling it. I can't think of any that I have used that was not colored completely through the stag. Here's a Buck 110 I did in 2008 with amber stag, and this amber stag is lighter than most I recall working with.

It looks to me like you're stag was dyed on the surface and not all the way through it.
I don't know where you're stag came from but it is not typical of the amber stag I have gotten from Culpepper's.

[eveled]

Everything you say is true. Mine is factory Buck. So the original source is unknown.

One question. I have wondered if epoxy and two center pins would be enough to hold a handle on a western knife? Rather than drilling through the tangs.

Love reading your posts. Your work is top notch.

[orvet]

Under most circumstances it would probably be adequate.
I would rather see the handle secured with epoxy and 2 cutler's rivets because I think they more secure than the small pins. But aside from subzero Arctic temps the epoxy should not fail.
Extreme temps can cause most adhesives to fail. If I need to remove a handle I've already glued on a knife, I use the subzero method. 36 hrs in the freezer and a couple taps from a hammer and the handle falls off.
Even the best adhesive can be made to fail.

I am glad you enjoy reading my posts.
I hope they make sense to everyone!

[Colonel26]

Thanks Dale. That’s what I assumed you were doing. But, I wanted to make sure. You so some excellent work on these old Westerns.