Help with bone scales!!

[jethro]

I took my latest knife to work today to show a co-worker. Now I have two to make ASAP. This is a good thing, but one of the guys wants green bone scales on the handle.

I have never worked with bone, so I need some help and guidence. Who sells good quality and good color bone scales. I have seen some on TKS site and on Pops.

Any and all help is greatly apprieciated.

Thanks,
Mike Bodine

[Ray Rogers]

Most all of the regular bone scales sold my the major knife supply houses is cow bone so the 'quality' of the bone is pretty much the same every where.

The color quality will vary some. I've had some bone where the dye was denser at the surface than in the middle and that gives a great 'sun burst' effect as you grind contours in it. Other bone has the dye equally distributed all the way through it which gives a very solid, uniform appearance. Unfortunately, both types of bone came from the same supplier and was theoretically supposed to be the same product so I'm not sure you can really predict exactly what you will receive. Worse, you can't really know until you start grinding on it.

The good news is, bone is cheap so you can buy a lot of it and experiment. One of the best ways to get the color you want, the way you want it, is to buy plain white bone and dye it yourself. Get some common fabric dye from your grocery store and go to it. If you want a jigged pattern, get out the ol' Dremmel tool. Making your own is fun, cheap, and easy and adds one more dimension to your knife making skills....

[jethro]

Thanks Ray,
I have been making hunting knives with micarta scales. I have not used bolsters. Do I need to put bolsters on a bone scale handle?

Also how do Pin it? I have used the screws like the ones that pop's knife supply sells. I don't think that would look good in the jigged part of the handle.

This is a great site! Thanks for everyone's help.

Mike

[Ray Rogers]

You don't have to use bolsters with bone scales. Depending on the thickness of the scale, you can pin them or use any other method that you use for Micarta....

[jethro]

Thanks,
I think that I will try to use hidden pins and drill some extra holes for the epoxy. I am already looking forward to working with a new handle material!

Mike