Has anyone tried Potassium Promanganate?
I've dyed Cow Bone, Elk, Stag, and a few random acquired pieces that "look" like Stag, but I would not be able to verify that, it all turned out great! But I did soak mine for a lot longer than Raymond did, like about 10 days on the average, I have not seen any problems with doing it that long other than if you're in a hurry and need the piece faster. Also, I would imagine that it probably doesn't take that long I was mostly experimenting with different pieces, they all turned out satisfactory to my eye. Using the Pot Prom, is the generally accepted way to get the highly prized Amber coloring in Stag, as well as anything else you dye with it. My cow bone looked great, but like Raymond mentioned about, "Some Ivory not taking color", there are several handle material type pieces that will resist taking color, for several different reasons, or it could be just 1! The known Stag piece I have, turned out Awesome!! As did the unknown stag looking pieces. There is one round that looks like stag that looks pretty good, all in all, I think its pretty easy, and I doubt it takes as long as I did mine, I actually forgot I had put it up. When I remembered it, several days had passed since I had put it in the mix. I always put the DATE and TIME on mine, because I know that I will not be able to recall when I put it up! Its a good habit to use!! I don't know if you could get it darker by soaking it longer or if it may turn out lighter if you soaked it for a shorter time, that would be something to ask the pros, or maybe research on line. I'm sure those answers can be found out there somewhere, all I do know is that its an easy, practically fool proof way of getting beautiful amber coloring on horn type material!
BTW, Potassium Promanganate is dangerous stuff, it's an oxidizer, highly flamable, and also used as a water softener, it can be bought at Sears, it's fairly cheap, and I think it's sold in like 20 pound bags! The amount I used for 1 to 4 pieces in a peanut butter jar is a little bit, I shake out just enough to watch the water turn purple! Yeah! PURPLE! I have no idea how this stuff that turns water a brilliant color of purple, makes stag turn a beautiful color of AMBER! It just does, that's all I know, hope this helps, Rex
One more thing, I wanted to add, is that those that have a vacuum system, maybe able to get better results than I did, I really wanted to make sure I got the color deep into the material, so that if I had to take some of the bone, stag, etc, off of it, the Amber coloring would be there, I have not used a piece yet, the pieces I have are really nice, to me, and I decided to save them for an equally nice knife, so that each piece will compliment the other. Hope this helps y'all, Rex
