ironwood question

[mdoyle]

I made up a set of ironwood scales a couple months ago, and set them aside. The scales were epoxied to black spacer material with ebony bolsters. I went to finish the knife yesterday and every glue joint had failed. literally on it's own! I'm sure that I cleaned everything with acetone prior to fitup, as well as roughing all the glue bearing surfaces.
My question is could this be a result of the natural oils in ironwood? I've never used ironwood before. Has anyone had trouble with ironwood not liking spacer material?
I'm inclined to believe that I probably somehow screwed up the resin/hardener mixture but I wanted to ask anyhow because I'm half afraid to redo this set and sell it.
Thanks,
Matt Doyle

 

[David Schott]

How did they fail? Did the wood warp? Sometimes if you grind too hot, it will warp wood and you cant see the stress until it pops the glue and the bend comes out....

Ive had problems with expanding/contracting wood, but never total failures like you describe....what type of epoxy is it?

I dont find ironwood to be very oily....

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Ironwood should be attached with some sort of solid fastener. Glue alone will fail easily. Use Corby rivets and you will have no problems. Cleaning the surface with acetone is a good idea to help the glue adhere as much as it can.

 

[mdoyle]

TikTok& Stacy,
These were just scales and bolsters that I had attatched to black spacer material backing. Not attatched to a knife, they were just laying around. There was no warping no overheating, no nuthin. I hadn't even started to work them yet. The spacer material just lifted off like it was a cheap sticker. It was just plain ol' devcon 30 min epoxy. Thought maybe I had applied too much pressure when I clamped it but there is still plenty of epoxy left on the scales and spacer material.
Thanks,
Matt Doyle

 

[Rob!]

Ironwood is both very dense and oily - both presenting challenges to any adhesive. The scales need to be roughed up as well as the material (spacers) they are being attached to. Some epoxies are designed specifically for oily woods. I use Industrial Formulators G2. Also, slower setting epoxies usually outperform quick ones. The mixing is important - proportions should be as close as possible and when you think it's mixed enough, keep going for at least as long again.

Does your significant other have a warped sense of humor? Maybe someone switched your epoxy part A with vaseline.

 

[mdoyle]

Rob,
I KNEW it was her fault! I was just unsure exactly how! Thank you so much for the clarification! The whole thing is making sense now. Gotta run. I'm off to replace her conditioner with black liquid shoe polish. Thanks again for the insight. Seriously though I will try the G2.
Thanks,
Matt