...I have an inexpensive bowie knife w/ very polished buffalo horn handle.It looks beautiful but unfortunately the high polish makes it slippery.The horn is riveted with 4 pins to the tang so I cannot remove it.Is there a way that I can "refinish" it a little so that it is not so slick without ruining the handle.I thought about a little steel wool but am not sure.Attached is a generic pic to give you some idea.

Any assistance from those w/experience is greatly appreciated.

I had a similar experience with a horn handle knife I bought recently. I scratched it on one side so I used some 3M "micro" sand sponge on it (about 2400 grit) and took the scratch out of the handle. However it took away the smooth polish of the grip too. The good news is I like the dull look and better grip of that side of the handle now too. So I'll probably "dull down" the other side eventually too to match. The sanding sponge took out the gloss and roughed the grip but didn't damage it at all and I did it without taking it off the handle. If you have metal pins or furniture in the way just sand carefully and you should be able to take off the gloss and roughen it up a bit fine.