Help, please: Engraving on Horn or File Type Blade

txtwang

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Jul 10, 2007
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A person called me today wanting me to engrave on a knife he made. He asked if I could engrave an initial in the horn handle or possibly the blade area.
I told him that I thought you'd have to have a grinding type engraver for the horn handle and I asked what the blade was made out of..he said a file.
So, my question is, can you engrave horn or possibly a file? If so, what should I use to engrave either..if they can even be engraved.
I don't know that I'm even good enough to engraving something that belongs to someone else, are there any engravers in the D/FW area that might be interested? I told him I'd check for him. PM me and I can give you his name and number.

Thanks
Jerry
 

John B.

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Jerry,
Horn is fairly easy to scrimshaw but has a bit of a grain structure rather like wood.
It would be no problem for you to put his initials on the handle if you understand scrimshaw.
On black horn (like buffalo) it's best to use a white ink in the dots or cuts.
I'd avoid working in the hard blade.
 

mtgraver

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I find that horn carves/engraves fine, just keep your tool sharp and watch gutting cross grain as you would in wood. If you'd like to see a knife I did with carved horn scales, please go to my site, www.MarkThomas-graver.com
Give me a shout if I can help, good luck. I guess one tip would be a light hand works better.
Mark
 

monk

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ditto on the horn work. i'd avoid fiddling with the blade. if made from a file blade, it may be hard and brittle, in which case it's not worth fooling with. if it was annealed, it still may be an unforgiving material to consider working with. i would probably test the thing for suitability in an inconspicuos spot before getting serious about this one.
 

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