All About Pocket Knives

I'm back again with more questions. I have found some potassium permanganate and have used it on a few small pcs of bone and it does create a beautiful brown color. What do you use to dye bone green or red with? Do you add something to the potassium perm? I might also say I bought a small bottle of leather dye and tried it and the potassium perm is far superior.

Where did you find the pot. perm. ?
Mark

I had a hard time a while back finding some, but it's all over ebay now. I also read some Sears stores carry it in the water softener dept. but didn't look there.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Potassium-Permangan ... 3a67be0c29

Thanks just bob!
Mark

We call it condy's crystals here in Aus. Use it for medical purposes. Very useful for rashes/stings/allergies.

Read about using it for dyeing bone but haven't tried it, will now.

Thanks for the preveiw.


cheers Gary.

Here's a very small pc of scrap bone that I daubed some on with a q-tip to see what would happen. I assume if you let the bone soak overnight in a strong concentration you would get a much darker color?

I just read on the Internet where they are using Kool Aid and tea to dye bone with. I really don't know what will work or won't work. I found out about the potassium in Ben Kelley's book, so assume that that practice has merit? I don't think leather dye is very penetrating - from what I have seen.

just bob wrote:I just read on the Internet where they are using Kool Aid and tea to dye bone with. I really don't know what will work or won't work. I found out about the potassium in Ben Kelley's book, so assume that that practice has merit? I don't think leather dye is very penetrating - from what I have seen.

Leather dye is what I used and is the way they did it back in the day.
The bone needs to be softened first and to become translucent. I used gasoline then soaked in leather dye. The color goes all the way through the bone.
It is by no means a quick way of doing it.
As I recall, from first preparing the bone till attaching to the knife took about a month.
But I wanted the bone somewhat dark for this particular knife.
It should darken up more with age and ware also.
(HERE IS THE KNIFE IN QUESTION)
"sorry about the dust"



J W

ringergary wrote:We call it condy's crystals here in Aus. Use it for medical purposes. Very useful for rashes/stings/allergies.

Read about using it for dyeing bone but haven't tried it, will now.

Thanks for the preveiw.


cheers Gary.

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=pot ... &FORM=VDRE#

http://www.bing.com/shopping/search?q=p ... &FORM=HURE

Bob

Got some condy's crystall's yesterday at the local chemist shop.
Put couple bone offcuts in dish with teaspoon of condy's and poured boiling
water into it.

Had a gander today, run one bit over the sander and the brown colour has gone in
at least 1/16inch.
Will test everyday till it goes all the way, will post back here with pic's.


cheers Gary.

Well I tested that bone soaking in the condy's today and sanded a bit more off.
The colour has penetrated a fraction more. At this rate I reckon it'll have to soak for at least a week.
See how it goes with this lot and might boil the next lot to see if the heat works quicker.


cheers Gary.

Back again, soaked and boiled this bone and antler for the last 2 weeks,
From the sanded bit exposed you can see that it hasn't penetrated a lot.
Might have to soak in petrol as mentioned in earlier post, will try that.

FWIW, the antique bone handles were not the same color all the way through.

I have several examples of unused antique handles and if you sand them such as what was done in the photo above it will be a yellow color under the surface not white. But still, it will never be the same color as what the outside of the bone handle is

Miller Bro`s wrote:FWIW, the antique bone handles were not the same color all the way through.

I have several examples of unused antique handles and if you sand them such as what was done in the photo above it will be a yellow color under the surface not white. But still, it will never be the same color as what the outside of the bone handle is

Most of the commercially dyed bone I buy today does not have consistent color all the way through the bone.
Speaking personally that is what I like about it. I love to watch the color change and develop as I work the bone down while hafting.

fir the handles and haft them, then dye. after dying soak in mineral oil for a few hours to "set" the dye and keep it from wearing out/off

You've got to boil the bone for a few of hours first to open it up, then simmer it in dye for a few hours more, then finish it off with a warm oil soak. If you don't cook the bone the dye will take a lifetime to soak through. If the bone's very thin it might be a good idea to clamp it to a straight surface while it's still warm just in case it tries to warp.

Eric

I don't know what the copyright laws are but I am copying and pasting this from another site. This looks easy and interesting. Will it work?


I found a good method for stabilizing and coloring bone in the "Shop Talk" area of BladeForums. This was my first time to try this method, and I was pretty pleased with the results. Here are the steps: 1) Take a glass jar and fill it with wood hardener. 2) Add in the dye of your choosing and mix it up well. You can add some acetone if you want to thin the liquid. 3) Use a hair dryer and heat the liquid in the jar until it's warm to the touch. Leave the top partially off as seen in the second photo. 4) When the liquid is good and warm, heat the bone in the microwave for around 25 seconds. 5) Immediately drop the bone into the liquid as soon as it comes out of the microwave. 6) When the bone quits fizzing, screw the top tightly onto the jar. 7) Wait until the jar reaches room temperature and place it in the fridge overnight. Take the pieces out of the liquid, blot them off with a paper towel, and set them out to dry.
I took my bone out after about 12 hours, but I would have liked to bone to have gotten a little darker. Next time I'll leave it in for about a day. Also, I didn't have any wood hardener so I used polyurethane. I used leather dye as my coloring agent, but I've also heard of using food coloring or Rit Dye.

Yes potassium permanganate is used in backwashing certain type water filtering systems. A culligan or independent water filtration company should have it or be able to get it.

watch this..scary...look ma, no glass.

http://www.graspr.com/videos/potassium- ... lycerine-2

gringo wrote:watch this..scary...look ma, no glass.

http://www.graspr.com/videos/potassium- ... lycerine-2

Got a good scald on it, huh?