All About Pocket Knives

After seeing Joe's natural smooth bone beauty in the Camillus 23 thread a few weeks ago, I ordered some large natural bone scales from Culpepper. This 3299 1/2 had been sitting in my "on-deck" box for a few years (minus the deteriorating celluloid scales) waiting for some inspiration. I just finished it up this morning, so I thought I would share. I really like the thicker slabs. Obviously my shield inlaying and some of the finer detail skills need improvement, but I'm OK with the outcome on this EDC. I hope everyone is having a great memorial day. Cheers!

Herb

Nice work, Herb. That smooth white does look good!

I've always liked smooth bone covers. And you have added beauty to the mix.

herbva wrote:After seeing Joe's natural smooth bone beauty in the Camillus 23 thread a few weeks ago, I ordered some large natural bone scales from Culpepper. This 3299 1/2 had been sitting in my "on-deck" box for a few years (minus the deteriorating celluloid scales) waiting for some inspiration. I just finished it up this morning, so I thought I would share. I really like the thicker slabs. Obviously my shield inlaying and some of the finer detail skills need improvement, but I'm OK with the outcome on this EDC. I hope everyone is having a great memorial day. Cheers!

Herb

I have been a fan of smooth natural white covers for years. That looks exceptional. My only issue with white bone is that it soaks up oil too easily. I’ve half a dozen of them discolored from oil that seeped from the joint or was on my fingers. Very frustrating.
I really like the color variation in the bone you have there.
SSk

Very nice!
Treefarmer

I like the color as well. How did you get the variation in the color?

Nice job!

It's been posted on here before but you can use Minwax wood hardener to stabilize bone. This helps to prevent oil stains. Also you can soak the bone in various oil like linseed oil or mineral oil and get nice color patterns in the bone. Linseed oil is a hot mess so proceed cautiously. In Ben Kelley's book he suggests using small amounts as a buffing compound.

Herb you turned out a really attractive knife.

Thanks for the kind remarks everyone. Dale, the color variations just happened to be in those 2 pieces. On another note, as you might recall, I ruined a pair of natural bone scales when the cutting oil I put on the pin spinner seeped into the bone causing unsightly blotches on each side. I couldn't find the Ultra Slick cutting gel you mentioned but I think I have found something that seems to work quite well and it was sitting right in front of me on my work bench all along - clear silicone grease. Just a very tiny dab on the pin head before spinning seems to work great, and no stain. Also, thanks for the Walker wax recommendation. I think it might have an edge on Renaissance wax (despite the scary looking guy on the label).

Sharpnshinyknives wrote:

herbva wrote:After seeing Joe's natural smooth bone beauty in the Camillus 23 thread a few weeks ago, I ordered some large natural bone scales from Culpepper. This 3299 1/2 had been sitting in my "on-deck" box for a few years (minus the deteriorating celluloid scales) waiting for some inspiration. I just finished it up this morning, so I thought I would share. I really like the thicker slabs. Obviously my shield inlaying and some of the finer detail skills need improvement, but I'm OK with the outcome on this EDC. I hope everyone is having a great memorial day. Cheers!

Herb

I have been a fan of smooth natural white covers for years. That looks exceptional. My only issue with white bone is that it soaks up oil too easily. I’ve half a dozen of them discolored from oil that seeped from the joint or was on my fingers. Very frustrating.
I really like the color variation in the bone you have there.
SSk

Yeah, +1 to this. White bone actually soaks up anything which shows as a discolorization In the white bone. Nice job on this one, it looks great!

Looks nice, almost like mammoth!

I actually was thinking this one might look a bit like mammoth. I did forget to mention that after may last experience with natural bone soaking up oil I now have a new procedure. After I cut and attach the scales and finish sanding, I put on a good coat of wax all around. I epoxy the scales on before pinning, so I assume the back part is already sealed. So far, no more oil staining problems!

Nice work Herb. Good workmanship.
Great upgrade from degrading scales.

Absolutely beautiful!!

Great job! Smooth or jigged, I prefer bone over most other handle materials, the majority of the time. It varies - I guess the handle material has to match the character of that particular knife.
And this bone matches this knife perfectly. Love it!