Dyeing g10 knife scales

ilikegunspdx · Sep 12, 2022

Posting this in case anyone wants to change the color of their knife scales. Tried this out using Rit dye according to the simple technique in this short video (I suggest ignoring all "luvthemknives" videos on the topic). Note that there is a good video on YouTube on how to make color gradients also. Just think of dyeing Easter eggs, it's basically the same.

I prepped scales by rubbing with 99% alcohol. Make sure to follow up immediately with dry rag to soak up the oils etc that are suspended in the alcohol when you wipe it down. Don't let alcohol dry after first rubdown, wipe off with dry cloth.

I soaked in lightly boiling 8:1 water to dye mixture for 30 seconds on the carbon fiber/green g10 one and 4 minutes on the all green g10 one. Saphire blue Rit synthetic dye used.

I suggest shorter is better than longer. Longer makes very dark and also overdoes it imo in the sense that there is too much dye inside the scale. When the outside dries some of that wet dye from inside seeps into the outside dye and makes inconsistencies. So you have to keep wiping to get any new dye coming to the top. I think if you do 30 seconds you won't have this problem and I got full penetration with only 30 seconds.

Keep in mind that the lighter color the scale is to start with the better it will be vs darker scales (based on utube videos and my personal experience painting cars anyway, not personal experience dying knives).

Here are some before and after pics. Light is horrible now so color probably not that perfectly accurate in pics. If we have sun all try to take more pics. In other words pay attention to colors not the quality of the photo plz.

Before: (note: photo taken in good sunlight)

After: (note: photo taken in poor light)

Before: (note: photo taken in nearly perfect light)

After: (note: photo taken in poor light)

Had about 1 min of sun. But hard to get accurate color w phone. Need to use real camera I guess.

2Wheels4Ever · Sep 12, 2022

Those are some great results! I've used brown sharpie on some g10 and it helped change to a darker shade of brown, but nothing as dramatic as yours. Nicely done.

ilikegunspdx · Sep 12, 2022

2Wheels4Ever said:
Those are some great results! I've used brown sharpie on some g10 and it helped change to a darker shade of brown, but nothing as dramatic as yours. Nicely done.

Thanks! - But note there is no skill involved, I'm just doing what the video says is all.

Also fyi re brown in my research I found that the light tan ones take dye very well. Sounds like natural g10 (jade) is the very best candidate for dyeing (note that Info is from research, not personal experience).

I've been experimenting with the solid color one just now to learn and found out that if I hit it repeatedly with alcohol I can lighten up the color. I assume it's just removing some of the dye (not a lot) from the surface. Some blue is visible on the alcohol rag.

Then I tried typical car detailing type of silicone on a tiny patch of that lightened side and that darkened it up again, similar to the original side. But it made it sort of glossy and kind of fugly imo.

I tried another patch on the entire lightened side with 303 protectant (which is not glossy) and that darkened it up a bit (not quite as dark as the non-lightened side but very close). Just passing along experiment "data" ha ha so if anyone else wants to dye theirs in the future they have some options. Best bet it's dye it for shorter amount of time imo. Here are some pics.

Original after dyeing (no alcohol lightening)

After alcohol lightening

After applying 303 protectant to the entire lightened side (color almost the same as "original", just a hair lighter that you would only notice if I told you to look real hard for it ).

ilikegunspdx · Sep 14, 2022

Adding 1 other thing I tried (FYI) which is put "gloss" polyurethane on the red one in the pics. Before the red was so subtle u barely would notice it. I wanted a way to give it a "wet look" or somehow make the red color "pop".

I used 4 coats of rub-on type of polyurethane. Lightly sanded first coat with #0000 but not the other coats.

Probably a bit too glossy tbh. Modern styles seem to be flat or at most satin type of gloss so this is a bit of an older style look I suppose. But it did make a night in day difference on the red color though. I think I will hit it with #0000 steel wool to bring it down to a semi gloss sheen or maybe even down to satin and see what that looks like.

I will say the blue one with no poly feels nicer in the hand (regular uncoated carbon fiber feel).

Just passing on experiment results. Cheers!

Sheen in normal daylight lighting.

Sheen with led lamp just above to show gloss in bright light.

Poly used is shown below fyi. This type doesn't show gloss until about the third coat (it does not act like the old minwax brush on one coat poly). So 1-2 coats just adds a bit of satin type sheen. I have used 2 coats on gun stocks before for a nice satin look. Fwiw I found the one labelled "clear satin" on the container to not be as good because this one allows u to better control the level of gloss (imo).