Working with Buffalo Horn

[BoyNhisDog]

I have a rectangular section of Buffalo horn that is 1.5x5x.35 and I intend to make a couple of spacers in a Nordic style handle. I have never worked with Buffalo horn and don't want to mess it up. How is it to be worked and what are it's problems? Do you work it just like wood? Will it flake off or split if not worked properly?

Thanks for any help or advice.

[DC KNIVES]

I use alot of it and it is great to work with.It is soft so go easy.Overheating while sanding will discolor it.I usually handsand after 220 grit to keep from overheating.Sand to at least 600 before buffing, and then use white rouge on a soft buff.99% percent of people hate the smell of grinding horn.I am starting to like it. Sure does run people out of the shop.Good luck,Dave.

[BoyNhisDog]

Thanks Dave

I will be using nickle-silver for the bolsters and they will be on one side of the horn. When I grind the nickle-silver it can become very hot so I guess I best go slow and let everything cool off so the horn does not discolor. Maybe the answer would be to grind the bolsters as close as possible before putting them on the knife.

Generally everything is very blocky when this kind of knife is being put together and then taken down with a belt grinder. You probably know all that anyway but to illustrate the procedure I follow:




The finished product. It still needs to be cleaned up after the tung oil so the bolsters will brighten up.



Not pro work but it is a good strong blade that cuts like crazy. I ordered the blade from Finland.

The next will be with a hand forged blade and the horn along with Thuya burl.

[DC KNIVES]

Beautiful piece of wood and some nice work.Yes ,you should sand down your bolsters somewhat to shape and cool regularly while sanding.The heat from sanding can cause the epoxy to give up so cool often.Put a drop or two of Dawn dishingwashing liquid in your water to help settle your bucket crud.Dave.

[BoyNhisDog]

Dave, are you saying I should dip the whole thing in water to cool it, wood and all?

Some of the epoxy did sort of boil out but it seems to have harded up very good. Maybe it has lost strength? The good thing is this knife is really peened good. When the peening started working it really pulled the knife together hard.

I am very new at this and it is just dabbling so all advice is extremely welcome. This is my first Nordic blade. I have only made two others in my life. One from an old circular saw blade and the next was an Engnath blank about 10 years ago.

Thanks again

[DC KNIVES]

Glen, There are many ways to do it, but I usually get my bolsters or guard close to finished dimensions as well as the handle.Then little rough sanding is needed.I dip my handles for just a second to cool it off not soak it.I have never had a problem doing this, but believe me heat will kill epoxy.If it is too hot to hold then dip it.Sanding will dry it out immeadiately.Go easy, this is not a time to rush the procedure.On the next one try getting the parts closer to finished before assembly and I think it might be easier for you.Dave

[BoyNhisDog]

Thank you so much Dave. I have a million things to learn and I am having fun doing it. Suggestions are noted and will be followed.

[C L Wilkins]

Glenn,
Sorry for the late reply, I just read this. Some other cautions of water buffalo...

If and when you epoxy the scales, I used C clamps at one time. I no longer use them. On water buffalo in particular it left a neat round circle in the scale. It didn't dawn on me for a couple of months what had happened. I now use those spring clip type clamps for all my gluing operation.

Water buffalo is hair. Just like rhino horn. It will move with the humidity. I never have but I know of a number of people that get theirs stabilized. It is not a bad idea.

Water buffalo horn finishes out easily and as mentioned, don't get it hot. It is the original "plastic".

Craig

[J.Arthur Loose]

...when drilling or cutting buffalo horn you can delaminate tiny bits around the cut / hole. You can see them through the material since it is slightly translucent. Cut / drill slowly and with very sharp tools and you'll be fine.

I find that I can sand to 180 or 220 grit and then use a fine steel wool to really smooth things out. After that I use a buffing wheel with a tripoli compound.

Nice knife, btw. I always like seeing more Nordic style blades out there!

[Coutel]

I chose to use a piece of buffalo horn which had a lot of translucency in it which I thought would look good polished. Everything went very well until the final polish when a smal pin prick hole appeared in one of the translusions....rubbed it more and the hole got bigger. Maybe some of those tranlusions are hollow in places?.......never happened before or since.I had to fill the hole with some powdered horn dust and epoxy....Other than that, I like working with buffalo....very easy to work with. On the downside, if highly polished, it seems to scratch easily.

Kevin.

[Jason Cutter]

I've heard all sorts of good and bad things about buffalo. I haven't used it on more than a couple of knives. It works beautifully and being quite soft, our modern grinding machines are overkill on it - too aggressive. I've found it to be nearly as soft as that polyester pearl or acrylic material. With soft materials like that I find that using a file and doing it by hand gets a better result. Another thing I've found with softer materials is to use a finer grit to start with, especially if there isn't much shaping to do. The soft surface will take a gouge from a larger grit very deep and will require a lot of sanding to get out. I started with no less tha 180grit paper and worked up to the 400-600grit range before doing what J Loose did - steel wool and then buff. I used a tripoli (pink) on the black horn but on the honey-white horn, I was too chicken and took it up to 1200grit by hand (doesn't take long at all) and then buffed with a white diamond. Both came up nicely to a polished finish.

Yes, polished soft stuff scratches easy. Can't win.

Cheers.