Gee-Flex Much!

P. McKinley

P. McKinley

Joined
Jan 27, 2008
Messages
2,010
I've glued liners onto lots of scales before, but never with West Systems G-Flex, till now.

I do understand the concept of - what you do to one side of a piece of wood, you do to the other, but I've not had issues prior to this. Well, live and learn, eh?

Bird's eye Maple with Rosewood liners:


-Peter
 
Mike - That's plain ole' flat sawn Bird's eye Maple. Glued and clamped to a flat marble surface for about 30 hours. Never had it happen either.
 
I have a few scales that I have cut up that seem to warp and unwarp with the humidity, Here in michigan its nothing to go from a dew point of 45 to 70 in less than 2 days
 
John - I just unclamped these last night. They were fine when I closed shop at midnight. This morning.... all wonky.
 
P.
I've used G-flex for years and never had that happen?
I think as has been mentioned that humidity & heat are more likely the culprits.
 
My guess is the liners are not allowing the wood to swell with the humidity on the one side. Let them dry out and I bet they go back flat or maybe even bow the other way. I think it is a testament to G/flex' holding ability.

Bob
 
That happened to me before using acra glass. It was a really nice piece of stabilized dyed burl, the first dyed burl I've ever tried using. Really ruined my Cheerios that day.
 
Wow looks like it could be the glue, I figured humidity as well. It is very humid where Shaw lives though.

Don't put the Gflex on your Cheerios though.
 
It happened to me before. I asked on this forum and was suggested to clamp flat and bake at a low temperature (150° F or something). It worked pretty well.
 
I've had that happen on about 4 sets of stabilized wood scales of different wood varieties using g-flex. The worst though was with maple. I've been trying to figure it out. One set keeps warping. I've flattened it 4 times and just pulled it out after a getting side tracked several months and it's bad enough I'm going to have to totally grind off the liner and reflatten to start over. If anyone has any isights I'd love to know. I'm seriously thinking about trying CA glue when I get this back to square one.
 
I've had that happen several times with Acraglass and even with stabilized scales & G-10 liners. I just clamp them back to something flat and keep them clamped when not fitting or epoxying them to the tang. When I attach them to the tang I make sure I put a clamp in the center. I haven't had one come back yet. (fingers crossed)
 
Will quality CA glue create less of a problem while still being strong enough?
Sorry if I'v hijacked your thread Peter.
 
I believe you are not a knifemaker until you use gflex. Haha ;)
I have never seen this happen. Btw I always glue up in my house which is usually around 65-70 degrees.
 
Assuming they will easily straighten out under a little pressure, I would go ahead and epoxy it to the knife using mechanical fasteners. The strength of the epoxy should keep it flat against the tang after the epoxy dries. Of course, I've been wrong before so, ???
 
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I expect you are already doing what is necessary. I suggest an entire redo even maybe with different materials. Frank
 
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