Acra Glass & Teak Oil

B

bgmills

Joined
Nov 25, 2002
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I have a pre-made knife blank that I want to add a handle made of deer leg bone. I have dyed with Fiebings leather dye, sanded, and soaked in Watco Teak Oil. The bone has taken on what I would call "the poor man's mammoth ivory" look. The dye has settled in the cracks etc. giving it a quite nice look. My question is will the the Acra Glass adhere to the inner bone and hidden tang or will I have to roughen up the inside of the bone because of the teak oil. Thank you for your time and know how.

Bill
 
It may not adhere well as adhesives don't like any kind of oil. To remove oil you may rub with acetone the flats. That will increase your chances...
 
A strong mechanical grip will help. Even if you get it chemically clean, oil can still leach into the joint. This is a common problem when bonding rubber (which contains paraffin oils). A rough surface would be a good idea.

Something that you could do that might raise some surface energy to aid adhesion would be to flame the surface you want to bond to. This technique is frequently used to bond to polyolefins and may help in your application.
 
Patrick, Nathan can be quite entertaining when he makes a forging blunder on a blade . :D :thumbup:
 
All the back slapping asside......he is building a hidden tang knife with a leg bone. No flats to sand or wipe or places to flame.

Advise on doing a bone handle:
Clean the inside with a drill bit, moving it about to chew off any soft material, and to roughen the insides. It really helps if the hole on a hidden tang is smaller at the end than it is inside...that way the glue plug can't possibly move.

On hollow bone handles,or stag that I have to remove a lot of pith, I use this technique:
Completely fill the void in the bone/stag handle with the epoxy you will be using ( use a slow setting resin, I like T-88). Set it in a clamp, end upright, to allow the resin to cure. Sand/file the end flush. The bone is now a solid handle. Now, drill the resin filled bone/stag as if it was a block of wood. Run resin down in the new hole and assemble the knife blade to the handle. This will insure a solid and rigid knife. A pin through the tang is always a good idea,too.

Stacy
 
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