cheep stabilizing

[JTknives]

i was cleaning a knife for my boss and i remembered he told me his wood handle swells and sucks up water. so i tryed somthing. i cleaned off all the old dear guts with windex and dryed it off. i then poped the handle scales in the microwave for 25sec. then took the hot scales and put them in a zip lock bag with minwax wood hardener.it went crazy looked like a pot of boiling water. but the bag did not inflate at all. the million bubbles where comming out of the wood. i removed scales there was less liquid

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Well, If you didn't destroy the handle I guess there was no harm, but putting an assembled knife in the microwave is how you disassemble them. I would be looking for those scales to come loose someday, unless they are bolted with Loveless or Corby bolts.
Stacy

 

[SteelSlaver]

I think he took them off the knife if I read it right.

 

[JTknives]

ya took the scales off the knife,

 

[Patrickknives]

There was a similar thread that also heated the hardner in a jar and sealed it. I tried that and when it cooled it pulled a vacume on the jar which pulled more air out of the wood (more bubbles) and let the hardner penetrate deeper. Worked real well, just remember that hardner has a much lower boiling point that coffie.