All About Pocket Knives

GEC has been making knife handles from dyed camel bone and dyed giraffe bone. It is easy to get them mixed up but it seems to me that the camel bone takes on a single hue or color to varying degrees, whereas the giraffe bone can be more varied. I have seen giraffe that is quite dark but other examples have many bright colors that resembles the best mammoth you have ever seen.
Am i correct that the camel bone is more all one color ? or am i getting these 2 bone types mixed up ?
If that is the case, why ? difference in the bone structure ? or different dying techniques ? i.e. camel bone could be as varied & bright as giraffe if dyed the same way ?
I remember when mammoth first began to be used for knife handles. It took awhile to catch one (a few years) and now mammoth is very popular handle material.
Most of the giraffe bone i have seen is at least as attractive as mammoth and some of the giraffe bone is more spectacular than the best mammoth i have seen. I think dyed giraffe bone has a bright future.
If you know about the differences between camel & giraffe bone or how they are dyed, please post. And please post any other comments as well.
kj

The first knife I bought with camel bone handles was a folding hunter with a circular shield with a bullet on it made in Pakistan.Surprisingly it was of pretty decent quality and was similar to a Case 65 pattern. As I recall it was pretty dark in color and the jigging was good.I traded it off to a friend who wanted it more than I did. Don't have any with giraffe bone handles;at least I don't think I do.

Unless they are dyed I think both giraffe bone and camel bone are white, like cow bone.
I have some raw giraffe bone that is been unbleached and undyed, it is white.

Here's an XX Era Case I had re-handled with Orange Giraffe Bone. It has some white in it but turned out nicely. The second photo of the handle scales is the exact bone used on my knife. Click on the photos to enlarge.

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Mike

kootenay joe wrote:GEC has been making knife handles from dyed camel bone and dyed giraffe bone. It is easy to get them mixed up but it seems to me that the camel bone takes on a single hue or color to varying degrees, whereas the giraffe bone can be more varied. I have seen giraffe that is quite dark but other examples have many bright colors that resembles the best mammoth you have ever seen.
Am i correct that the camel bone is more all one color ? or am i getting these 2 bone types mixed up ?
If that is the case, why ? difference in the bone structure ? or different dying techniques ? i.e. camel bone could be as varied & bright as giraffe if dyed the same way ?
I remember when mammoth first began to be used for knife handles. It took awhile to catch one (a few years) and now mammoth is very popular handle material.
Most of the giraffe bone i have seen is at least as attractive as mammoth and some of the giraffe bone is more spectacular than the best mammoth i have seen. I think dyed giraffe bone has a bright future.
If you know about the differences between camel & giraffe bone or how they are dyed, please post. And please post any other comments as well.
kj

KJ,you are correct in that giraffe bone is usually more multi colored and camel bone tends to be more of one color. Both are extremely dense and the giraffe bone being the most dense of any bone I have used, except for whale jaw bone. The whale bone I have is really old and was bleached by the sun covered by tons of water at one time. But it is nearly impossible to obtain. The brown giraffe bone that I have pictured , I dyed myself after cutting and drying for years. The dark blue giraffe bone I bought from Culpepper Knife supply.
I do not know how they dye it but I assume that the extremely dense giraffe bone does not take the dye on uniformly. The camel bone is not as dense and the dye probably soaks in more evenly. Both polish up nicely but the giraffe is probably the better of the two for finishing up.
I have used the whale bone on several knife handles but being so hard to obtain, it is probably out of the question for many people to use or find. Just my observations, The brown bone on the left is dyed and stablilized whale, the green scales are camel bone, and the two on the right are giraffe bone.
Terry Mike nice Case with the orange g.b.

Really like the looks of that whale bone

You would like it even more if you could handle it in person! Thanks Steve, Terry

I am still not clear on why dyed giraffe bone looks more colorful and brighter than camel bone. If it is due to dying technique why are we not seeing camel bone as colorful as giraffe bone can be ?
Giraffe shin bone i have read is the most dense bone known. Is camel shin bone almost as dense ?
The significance could be increased resistance to getting a crack when dropped onto a hard surface. However is denser bone actually harder to crack ?
I hope we see more knives with giraffe and camel bone. I think these bone types are the most significant improvement to choice of knife handles since mammoth was introduced.
kj

KJ, I don't have any knives made with camel bone right now but did find a couple I made with giraffe bone. I can't answer your question on why giraffe bone is more colorful , it is just more "appealing" to me, so that's what I like to use. I still think it is the density of the bone that causes the dyes to soak in differently. Terry

I did find a photo of one I made back in 2008 that has camel bone on it. It was white bone but I dyed it with walnut colored analine dye. Maybe it is the type of dye used that causes different effects? This is alcohol mixed with dry powder. Terry

Terry you sure turn out some awesome stuff!

thanks dog, I guess I got a little off topic here with my fixed blade knives, but wanted to show some of the giraffe bone stuff I had made. Terry

Not at all off topic Terry. Your posts are a positive addition to this thread. Beautiful knives by the way.