Leather Sheath

How can you tell if an old knife handle is bone, antler, horn or plastic?

I was given an old Western (Camillus) brand knife at least forty years old. How can I tell what material was used for the handle? The knife is a large (3 7/8″) two bladed stock knife with a leather sheath.

The tip of a red-hot straight pin, when touched to an inconspicuous place will melt plastic but have NO effect on bone or antler and very little on horn. Additionally, horn is smooth and usually multicolored when used in a knife handle. Bone often takes on a patina similar to ivory which yellows richly with age and can appear to have been stained in tea or coffee. The bone handle is usually also smoothly finished. Antler handles most often show some of the roughage found around the base of the antler with warty nodules and grooves from blood vessels, etc. On the rare chance that your handle might also be ivory, ivory has growth rings similar to those on a tree trunk or branch. You might need a magnifying glass to see them, but if it is ivory, they WILL be there. (Look on the edges or tips of the handle.) Other than wood, the only other material I am aware of used for knife handles was mother-of-pearl- from abalone and other large, thick sea shells. Without seeing the knife, but having seen others similar to it, I am betting it is either antler (first choice) or horn.

How to: Leather Sheath Part 1