Jigged bone dye?

John Wilson

Well-Known Member
Question for anyone who uses bone:

I just picked up a set of dyed jigged bone scales to use on a folder, as well as some white bone I intend to dye myself. The dyed scales I received are covered in dye that comes off on my fingers. How do I clean these up? Will I need to seal them somehow?

Secondly, on the white bone- can I use any tint or dye on them after they’ve been shaped? Or do I need to saturate them the way these jigged bone scales were apparently done?
 
John, I get my jigged bone from Culpepper and it comes pretty dyed up, like coming off in your hands dyed up.
I use a few paper towels with a little alcohol to get most of it off then dry paper towels to rub them down real good.
As you move along working with it you'll still get "some" dye coming off.

When I'm complete with it I rub it down a few more times real good with wax.
my knives with jigged bone usually see a buffer too, by the time it hits the buffer it's usually clean and only leaves a light tint on the buffing wheel.
after all is said and done I've never had problems with the dye leaching.
 
John, bone is hard to dye from my experience. It is very dense and will only take so much color. The old timers on the reenactors forum all talk about using Rit dye like you dye clothes with! Putting it a pot of hot water with the rit dye!

The fellow from the Turntex/Cactus juice,
He uses this, https://www.turntex.com/2-oz-dye-detail. If I remember correctly it has Alumilite in the dye! According to him you can dye and stabilize at the same time. The vacuum pulls both into the material!!

Personally I have used oil paint, like the kind artists use! Artist oil paints.jpgRub it in liberally and wipe off the excess! You will get some transfer while working but, the beauty of the oil paint you can blend areas of different colors into the bone. It does need something over top of it when totally done! As Steve says a wax will seal it if you want to go that route!!
 
Perfect. Steve and Cliff, this is exactly what I needed to know. I’m happy to hear the dye job on these scales is normal. I thought I had something wrong going on here. Cliff, thanks for the pointers. I’ll cut some of the bone and experiment.
 
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