bowie knife

[rickjf]

I am working on this big bowie knife. I found this big end bone section that I want to use as a handle. Any ideas on cleaning up the bone and whitening it?
Knife if from a horse hoof rasp.

 

[paulvallandigham]

You can boil the bone in water, with a little bleach, and it will clean up and whiten. Be careful using bone. Its brittle most of the time. It is NOT ANTLER. Often the interior has a hollow section. Its best to fill that with epoxy resin before mounting the tang in the bone. The epoxy will fill the voids and strengthen the bone as a handle. If you are going to use pins to hold the tang to the handle, drill the pin holes, and have the pins standing buy as you put the tang in the bone. Then insert the pins and let the epoxy glue both the bone and the pins to the bone and tang. The ends of the pins can be cut off and filed down flush with the surfac, when the epoxy dries.

 

[Charles D. Prokopp]

My method is similar to Paul's. In addition to boiling in a bleach solution, give it a boil in TSP to remove grease. One method of stabilizing the bone before final assembly is to put it in a jar of Formby's wood hardener and let it soak for a few days, then remove from stabilizer and let it dry for about the same length of time that it soaked. Hint: when it's completely dry, it will feel room temperature when you touch it to your cheek. The epoxy that I use for this type of knife handle is JB Weld, it's thick and nearly indestructable. The color is a dark grey, so it blends in with iron or steel pins if the holes in the bone are slightly oversized. Just use acetone to clean any overflow off. I've made a lot of knives like this, and they turn out great.
That's a nice chunk of bone and it ought to look really good. My main bone supplier is PetsMart, the chew-toy section. They have many different sizes that have already been boiled out and de-greased, saving a lot of work!

 

[rickjf]

I did not boil it in bleach but I did put it in a can with three table spoons of Draino to remove the soft tissue. A couple of hours worked well but I will try the bleach. What is TSP. I will use JB weld.
Thanks for the suggestions from both.

 

[PitchyPine]

Looks like it`ll be a heck of a knife, looking forward to seeing it finished. :thumbsup:

 

[rickjf]

Thanks, I just got my forge up and running after years of having no shop. I prefer forging to grinding. My tools are primitive. Hammer and tong with my grinder made from an old tile cutter. When I finish I will post.

 

[Claude Mathis]

What is TSP.

Trisodium Phosphate. (cleaner)

 

[paulvallandigham]

TSP not only cleans off flesh, but will kill any backteria living in the bone cells.

 

[JamesG]

WOW that a great look bowie , and the bone goes togeither great glad to see another texas man