buffalo horn handle

CAJones

CAJones

Well-Known Member
I have a gentleman wanting me to make him a knife using horn from a water buffalo that he shot for the handle. I have had the blade ready for some time but just this week now have the horn in hand.
Is there enough here to get a handle? :les:
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Seriously though, I have very little experience with buffalo horn and zero experience working it from raw form. Any recommendations are most certainly appreciated. The knife is AEB-L and has a 3.5" blade and a 4.5" tang. My plan is to use stainless for a guard and pommel and it has not yet decided if any spacers will be added for other color. Best I can tell without cutting in to the horn is the last 1/3 is solid. Anything I need to know before I start cutting?
Any thoughts, ideas or suggestions are most certainly welcome.
Thank you,
Chris
 
You MIGHT have enough solid on the "tip" ends to made a hidden tang handle, BUT! From personal experience, I try to discourage it when a client wants buffalo horn for a handle....well, that's not completely true.....I just flat refuse to use it.

To explain, horn is nothing more then compressed hair. If you've ever heard a woman say "I'm having a bad hair day!" Working with buffalo horn is nothing but a "BAD hair day". It "moves" excessivley moreso them most other natural materials, as mentioned it stinks to high heaven when working it, and to get the scratches out of the final finish is a major battle. Then once you THINK your finished with it, and send it off to the client, its going to move, its going to check, and possibly crack. More times then not you will see it again, when the client calls you up complaining that the material has either swollen or shrunk, no longer matching up the guard of pin(s). This situation is accelerated and worsened if it's actually a "using" knife.....exposure to the elements, blood, water, etc, etc.

Theres a good reason why you don't see many experienced/seasoned knifemakers using it......to put it bluntly, its a pain in the backside, and it one of those that just won't go away. :)
 
Ed, unfortunately I knew of most of these issues. However, the whole purpose of the knife was to commemorate the hunt. No horn, no knife. I have (and will again) explain that things will move. I have been tossing around the idea of fluting the seem at each end of the horn to help disguise the raising or lowering of edges. Would putting spacers such as leather or vulcanized fiber that move a little themselves help transition from the horn to guard/pommel?
It is supposed to polish up well on its own, but would a finish such as CA or Tru-Oil do anything at all to minimize movement?
Thank you,
Chris
 
Is water buffalo different the American buffalo (bison) and different from cow horn?
 
Horn is horn. Basically as Ed said it's compressed hair. The difference between the species is no more than the length of the solid section and the color when polished. Of course water buffalo horn comes from black to a translucent gray. I've seen the translucent horn used to display the damascus pattern under the scales. It looked great but no telling how well it held up.

Doug
 
Thanks for the info Doug - I know nothing about any of the buffalo horns, but cow horns I've fooled with all my life, from dehorning cows to fooling around with. Never tried for knife scales....

Ken HH>
 
I use a good bit of horn for handles, both buffalo and other horns. I personally think most of the problems associated with horn are problems common with most if not all natural handle materials. Working horn with a belt sander is a lesson in just how bad it smells (think burning hair with a hint of rotting beef), and its heat sensitivity is as bad or worse than ivory... I suggest using rasps, hand-saws, and sandpaper for shaping and you get around both these problems (mostly, the dust still smells horrible). I don't like using it for scales, but in the round... scales are often flattened using heat or moisture, and this is just asking for warping issues with natural handle materials. Using it in the round for hidden tang knives reduces or completely eliminates warping issues that will plague you with full-tang scales. As Ed mentioned, it is absolutely essential to get all scratches out before moving up in grits, otherwise it does sand and polish easily and will take a brilliant shine.

One thing no one has mentioned... the common carpet beetle (Dermestidae) loves to eat holes in horn. I have found that soaking the horn in linseed oil thinned with turpentine (75% turp, 25% oil) not only ruins the taste for the beetles, but also allows the oil to penetrate somewhat into the horn, reducing the shrinking/swelling problem. I will soak the finished handle overnight after it has been epoxied, wipe off any excess, and call it done. I've never tried it with tru-oil but I suspect it will work, as long as it is thinned.
 
I finally cut on the horn today. I have to say there was more solid horn than I had thought there might be. I measured inside with a skewer and made my first cut within a 1/4" of where it turned solid. There ended up being about 12" of hollow and over 18" of solid horn.
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I have a piece ground to just over the size I need. Going to let it set a couple days before I go any further. Brand new 40 grit belt on the 1x30 and had zero issues with heat build up.
George, soaking the whole handle like that, does it create clean up issues on the guard or bolsters? Would I have any issues if I soaked it after I drilled the hole but before assembly?
Thanks again for the advice,
Chris
 
George, soaking the whole handle like that, does it create clean up issues on the guard or bolsters? Would I have any issues if I soaked it after I drilled the hole but before assembly?
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My reasoning for soaking it after the handle is completed is, oily surfaces do not epoxy together well...:) you could do it after the handle is shaped and epoxied, but before final finishing and polishing. You want it close to final shape, as the oil does not penetrate very deeply, despite being thinned. There should be no cleanup issues as long as the oil is not allowed to polymerize on the metal surfaces (just wipe the metal surfaces down when you remove it from the soak).
 
Put myself behind the 8 ball on this one last night.:mad:
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Had to "tap" a little too hard to get the pommel tight. My concerns about the guard separating were confirmed when I took the tape off this morning.
On the bright side, I now have absolutely zero concerns about the integrity of Acraglas. I had to grind the handle down all the way to the tang 2/3s of the way around before I could knock the rest off with a hammer.
Back out to fit up the handle pieces again. :31:

Chris
 
Finally have the knife finished. I am quite pleased with how it turned out.
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Now on to the sheath!

Chris
 
That's a good looking knife. It sure looks better than the previous photo. I'm sure your customer is happy with it.

Doug
 
Now that turned out really well! I do have a question how did we get from here
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to here?
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In other words what I am asking is the Buffalo Horn appears to brown, when I see it on the knife handle has changed to the black color I associate with Buffallo horn. I guess what I am asking is what did you do to make the color transformation?? If you told I must have missed that step!!
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Thank you C Craft(I'm sorry, still trying to pick up on everyone's first name)! To answer your question, I didn't do anything to change the color. What I believe to cause the brown is just sun bleaching, making it lighter, just as a person's hair will be lighter at the end of summer. The interior, save a few striations, is coal black. In the horn photo, you'll notice the 2nd and 3rd pieces in from the tip are sanded down closer to final shape. I hope this answers your question.

Here are some better photos of the knife...
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...and current progress on the sheath.
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Thanks for looking
Chris
 
I just go by Cliff. OK, thanks for answering my question. I knew the black/gray color was what I usually associate with Buffalo horn, what I didn't realize that was the inner core!!! That lets you know even though I have thought about I have never tried Buffalo horn!


I went back and re-read the posts and I did not see where you said. What is the guard and pommel material, if you don't mind me asking. It seems to work well with the other material. It seems to have more of a satin finish and looks like it belongs!!


I really like how this one turned out! The black spacer at each end sets off the stack of leather washer that make up the handle! Very nice work, can't wait to see your sheath for this one!!!!
 
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Thanks Cliff. The blade is one of my first in .118" AEB-L.Guard and pommel are both 416. Sandwiched between is the buffalo, birch bark and black G10. I sanded everything to 800 on this handle. I know a lot of people take them quite a bit higher but I see this knife getting well used and didn't see a need.

Thanks again,
Chris
 
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