Help with Handle Material

[keithw]

Hi all,

I bought a small (2 5/8 closed) Hartkopf knife recently and I'm stumped on the handle material.

The seller said it was "plastic".
If you tap it, it sounds like bone, but it doesn't have the tiny channels and holes that bone has.
I've tried to rub it briskly to see if I get that celluloid smell, but no.
It sounds too bone-like to be micarta.
It has some swirls in it, but it doesn't look like ivory.
I don't want to do the hot pin test.
Sorry that the pictures aren't very clear.


Any ideas / suggestions?

Thanks!
Keith

[terryl308]

Keith, Looks like ivory to me, but photo's can be deceiving, nice knife! Terry

[dcgm4]

Nice-looking knife. They don't look like ivory to me. Ivory has a grain like wood does, but I don't see any grain on your knife's handles. To me they look synthetic. If it's not celluloid, then maybe it's bakelite.

[orvet]

I use a 65X field microscope. They are $1 or$2 on eBay.
Synthetic handles look smooth unless there are jigged; ivory has grain and bone looks crazed under the scope. Look at a knife you know is bone and look where the handle is smooth, like neat the bolsters, then you will understand what I mean by the term "crazed".

Once you see that it will be very easy to tell the difference.

[fergusontd]

Could it be smooth Derlin? ftd

[kootenay joe]

The handles are man made, likely a plastic of some type. This type of white to off-white with smooth surface is relatively common on German & USA knives (Schrade USA 219 for example). All the ones i have had have been plastic, none were bone or ivory.
kj

[SolWarrior]

My guess is that they're synthetic but I see I'm a little too late. Ivory has striations and bone, especially none dyed bone, would have visible bone pores.