How To Fixing flaws and holes in scales

O

olfeller

Joined
Jul 14, 2012
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112
Thank you in advance for any suggestions...
I have some stabilized wood scales that have a few small cracks and holes that occur naturally in this wood, (there's maybe one or two small spots to fix per scale), and they'd probably be fine to leave as-is but I'd like to fill the voids and have the scale surface completely smooth and sanded before finishing...not trying to make the little flaws invisible, just flush and smoothed with the scale surface. Some kind of filler that is clear or black in color would do what I'm looking for. Would greatly appreciate any suggestions for what to use to fill these small voids in the scales. Thanks again.
 
That's the way to fill small voids 'n cracks - CA with sanding dust from wood handle.
 
Grind the handle to about 95% finished at 220 grit. Use a slower cure (medium) CA glue. Apply to the crack/pit/void. Immediately sand with a 220grit belt. The sanding dust will get driven into the crack/pit/void and bond with the CA glue. A few seconds later it will harden. Repeat as needed to make the defect disappear. If the place shows up again in the finish grinding and sanding, use thin CA and sand with a 400 grit belt or paper.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Grind the handle to about 95% finished at 220 grit. Use a slower cure (medium) CA glue. Apply to the crack/pit/void. Immediately sand with a 220grit belt. The sanding dust will get driven into the crack/pit/void and bond with the CA glue. A few seconds later it will harden. Repeat as needed to make the defect disappear. If the place shows up again in the finish grinding and sanding, use thin CA and sand with a 400 grit belt or paper.
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This is how I proceed too. Wet sand with superglue after the handle is shaped. Many imperfections sand out during the shaping. The ones that remain are the ones that need fixing not so much the ones when the handle is yet to be and you are looking at a set of scales.
 
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Thank y'all so much for the great suggestions, I have enough test pieces of wood that I'll be trying all of the above to see which works best for what I'm using and go from there... thanks again!
 
Some woods are greatly enhanced by this type of fill-and-sand technique. Redwwod burl and buckeye burl both look better after CA fill and sanding, even when it does not appear to have any defects.
BTW, the technique is good for unstabilized as well as stabilized wood.
 
Was working on a batch of knives yesterday. Had two that had some imperfections. One was ironwood and had a couple hairline cracks. The other was buckeye burl wit a couple of small eye holes. I was in the stage of shaping the handles on the grinder still. wet sanding at this stage works very well too. I saved these two for last so as not to screw up the belt and then went ahead an gave em a lil superglue and then hit it one the grinder. Both imperfections gone.
 
Does this method require using a belt sander? Or does it still work with paper and elbow grease?
 
Justin W said:
Does this method require using a belt sander? Or does it still work with paper and elbow grease?
Click to expand...
Works with hand as well and doesnt need a lot of time either. I started using activator spray in between. Smaller voids/cracks disappear after 1-3 applications, larger ones need more applications.
 
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