All About Pocket Knives

rexstubbins wrote:

muskrat man wrote:not sure what type of dye you're using but it seems to me oil would keep any kind of dye from penetrating into the bone because, well.......................it's oil.

I'm using Fiebing's oil dye. It seems like it would be OK because it's the same medium. Trust me. I had all of the same questions before I started but figured the only way to know for sure is just try it. I'm hoping that by tomorrow the one stingy scale will have penetrated completely with the olive oil.

Of all of the knives you have done have you dyed any muskrat man?

I dyed many handles, more than I can recall. Wit hthe dyes I use it's imperitive that the bone is thoroughly DE-greased. but as they say, there's more than one way to skin a cat

Rex, those new handles look better than the original!
I have a friend who has been a knife mechanic for over 40 years. He told me he puts bone scales in an old Crock Pot with leather dye. He turns it on for a few hours, then turns it off and lets it sit a day. He does this off and on for a few days.
I haven't tried it yet, but I will post results when I do.
Thanks for sharing the failures as well as the success, and again, great job on a beautiful knife!

Injecting the bone scales with oil is a very bad idea.
It will keep the bone from absorbing dye readily and it softens the bone. Sorry....