Removing bone handles intact?

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

I've a collection of old bone-handled kitchen knives I've been asked to rehandle.

Although they're all sheffield steel & the same over-all design, they're of different ages and makers so the handles have aged differently. Some're warped, others chipped, others yellowed, etc. etc. The owner wants them "matched" in a timber of my choice, which'll probably be a fiddle-backed river gum.

Given that I'd really like to salvage the original bone handles with an absolute minimum of damage, as they'll be my pay for the job , anyone got any hints or suggestions?

Would boiling risk ruin?

I gotta get these handles off and the rehandling finished pretty quickly, dammit, else I'd take my leisure...

[Auld Bassoon]

Hi Skew!

If there's no locking pin or screw, there's a fair chance that the handles would have been glued on with hide (or some other animal glue). If so, immersion in warm to hot water should loosen the glue joint.

I'd suggest trying it on the scrungiest specimen and see what happens.

Cheers!

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Thanks for the quick reply, Steve.

If there's no locking pin or screw, there's a fair chance that the handles would have been glued on with hide (or some other animal glue). If so, immersion in warm to hot water should loosen the glue joint.

I'd suggest trying it on the scrungiest specimen and see what happens.

Those are the lines I'm thinking along, too. After closer inspection I suspect that one or two of 'em are actually ceramic fired around the tang, so I don't have great expectations for them. It'd be nice if I am wrong though..

[Auld Bassoon]

Welcome mate!

Have you tried scraping a small area of the suspected items (say around the tang), to see if they are bone, ceramic - or (shock horror) bakelite or some other newer synthetic?

Another alternative is to apply a drop of two of Hydrogen Peroxide (most supermarkets sell Foulding's dilute H2O2. If the material is organic, it will start to bubble off oxygen within a second or two, and can easily be washed off with water.

Bone is usually slightly variegated (like the growth rings that give a figure to wood ).

Cheers!

[Termite]

Imitation bone handles were made of casein, a milk product second cousin to casein glue, and they don't take kindly to heat.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Peroxide, eh? I'll log off after this and go try just that.

It's the lack of the variegations that have me suspect about a couple. Their colours are right, but... I tried a scraping from one and it just powdered, but there's a slight grittiness that reminds me of porcelain.

Even if it fails the peroxide test, I'll still treat it as one of the bone ones. Should worse come to worst, there's always the hammer & vice.

[ozwinner]

A hot needle stuck into the said "bone" will smell like burning hair.
Plastic smells like ermm......plastic.

Al :eek:

[powderpost]

I have replaced the "bone" handles on a number of sets of old cuttlery. They had all been the victim of dishwashing machines. As has been mentioned before, the "bone" is in fact a derivative of casien, a milk product and is nothing like real bone. I have also made pens and lace making bobbins from bone and can assure the two materials are quite different.
Jim