Gluing on handles, anyone use Gorilla glue?????

G

Gridmapper

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Mar 24, 2013
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Ok.....I was wondering what glue do all you knife makers like to use for attaching handles to the tang. I have read that some guys out there are using Gorilla Glue. I have never tried Gorilla glue for gluing on handles before. I built and flew radio controlled airplanes for many years and when building the coroplast planes I would use Gorilla glue and it worked quite well for that but here is my problem or question with using it for gluing on handles. It is an expanding glue and as it cures it expands. I don't see how these guys are using it on knives because when I attach handles to my knives I first prep everything and prior to applying the epoxy I sand and finish the ricasso area of the handle since you cant get in there good then I glue everything up and clean with denatured alcohol and let dry. The problem for me if I used gorilla glue would be when it expands as it cures. I understand you could just sand it off when shaping the handle but how would you clean the ricasso area up when it expands out in that area?? I have been using Devcon epoxy for attaching handles and have been very happy with it. I used it when building the radio controlled airplanes for years and it never failed for me. I think if you find something that works for you then stay with it and I probably won't change to anything else but was curious about the use of gorilla glue and how they would be able to clean up the ricasso area. That area is one you want to finish before you glue so you don't have to try and clean it up after gluing. Any thoughts on gorilla glue?

John
 
Gorilla glue is a good glue...for wood working.

The problem is it expands and the glue line it leaves can be filled with bubbles that look ugly and it really is not good at space filling like epoxy.
 
I used it quite successfully on my neck knife that I wore for my wedding. Six years old, no pins, has been in frozen temps, hunting, camping and kitchen duties. I've had more luck with it than acraglas actually, but I'm pretty sure I got a defective batch. From my research the glue only expands when not under clamping conditions (lots of space for expansion, not suitable for hidden tangs or holes in tangs), from what I broke apart after glue up on test samples there were no bubbles (not easy to split apart either), and I found the expanded glue to be very easy to clean up. There is much misinformation about this glue due to the expansion issue and I feel it gets unduly dismissed. Maybe not the best choice but I have had it work. This was actually a scrap of steel I tried my first file work on, and was on my third to seventh knife.

Myweddingknife.jpg

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Reports of ugly joints come from people who didn't read the directions. Clamp it down tight. Gorilla Glue seals and holds very well when used properly, and use/clean-up is much easier than 2-part epoxies.
 
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I used it. It does require clamping. It does expand quite a bit. It is ugly around the joints and requires clean up so if your tang, blade or guard cannot handle the clean up work, better to skip gorilla glue.

Just my opinion.
 
I tried it once. I decided it wasn't for me. I'm sure others use it successfully, but I have no interest in working with it.
 
There is a specific gorilla glue designed for wood to steel bonds. I have thought of trying is, but still have a nearly full west systems supply to work through.
 
I have used it on many knives. Clamp tight and keep cleaning the front over a period of time. Extremely strong bond on certain materials. Particularly wood handles and it worked well on traditionally hard to glue types of wood too. On those that I had to take apart for whatever reason the wood failed before the joint did. I have since moved away to Gflex but not because Gorilla Glue didn't work. I did find that Gorilla Glue didn't work on some materials. I didn't like it for micarta or sheephorn and I use a lot of sheephorn. Just made sense to me to use one adhesive that worked for everything. But on wood Gorilla Glue works very well indeed.
 
Epoxy works best for me on hidden tangs. I have found that Loctite 324 works very well on full tang scales. Best to use it with the 7075 activator.
 
I used Gorilla Glue on a knife handle with a hidden tang, it worked great and is still working a year later. You have to wet the surfaces to be bonded and clamp it. GG expands into a hard foam-like substance as it dries, but clamping prevents the materials from coming apart. As someone else mentioned, you wipe and clean the excess glue that squirts out while it's still wet, using a wet rag etc, and it's very easy to clean up. On wood joints it is easy to trim down any excess and sand it flush. I find GG pretty convenient and durable.
 
Gorilla makes a 2 part epoxy as well.... this may be what some folks are using. One of my buddies swears by it.
 
I used it for my first few knives. No issues with it at all. I moved to g flex because it's more versatile (hidden tang, paracord soaked wrap).

To clean up the ricasso, just make sure that your clamp is out of the way. Then use a q-tip soaked in acetone to clean up the expanding glue. I found I had to clean it up a couple of times while it cured, as more glue would seep out.
 
I've used it for a couple of knives. The wood is going to fail before the bond, given that the prep is correct.

That being said, I've moved to AcraGlass.
 
I color my epoxy to match the liner so any minor gaps are not as obvious. Don't think that you can color the gorilla.
 
I've given it a try on several occasions. Most recently, trying to glue some liners onto scales. Everything looked good and was going along great until I started drilling pin holes, then they popped off. Had this happen on some stabilized scales as well.

I roughed the surfaces up with 80 grit, then clean with acetone followed by denatured alcohol. I let that dry then applied the glue. It says to wet the surfaces, but G10 and stabilized wood don't hold water well.

Like someone said above, it's a good glue...for woodworking!
 
Mudbug007 said:
I've given it a try on several occasions. Most recently, trying to glue some liners onto scales. Everything looked good and was going along great until I started drilling pin holes, then they popped off. Had this happen on some stabilized scales as well.

I roughed the surfaces up with 80 grit, then clean with acetone followed by denatured alcohol. I let that dry then applied the glue. It says to wet the surfaces, but G10 and stabilized wood don't hold water well.

Like someone said above, it's a good glue...for woodworking!
Click to expand...

It definitely needs a bit of water as it activates the glue. It doesn't have to soak into the product, so much as wet the surface.

I would be curious how well gorilla glue would stand up when used on laminates or micarta compared to wood.
 
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