Thanks again for the compliments and warm welcome gents :thumbup:
Cheers Stitch. I use a two part epoxy for all my knives....151 I think its called??
There's a few things to bare in mind with stacked handles, particularly for bark.
First off glue the stack in stages, say inch half in segments, 6-8 layers of bark in each (depends on thickness). This way you can ensure an even and fully flat compression of the layers. It also makes life easier for drilling/cutting the tang slot.
I don't cheat by drilling a big hole the diameter of the tang...I drill three holes and needle rasp/file a rectangular slot, trying to maintain a certain degree of mechanical fit to 'compliment' the adhesive. Can you imagine how much of a ball ache this is when I make the none stacked ones?! Lots of time and patience required there!
For bark you also need to flatten each piece, to prevent gaps, and take off some of the papery layer, to prevent delamination. I often prepare the layers and alternate the oreintation, so the 'grain' of the bark is like this: =ll=ll=
Also, bark always curls up. You have to flatten it a bit before some of the above steps. Again I alter the orientation of the bark so it goes outside-outside/inside-inside/outside...does that make sense?? liek this: ()()()() this seems to allow better, more uniform compression.
I'll often clamp the layers up like this for a couple of days, before I've glued them up. If the layers are thick and stubborn, I'll 'set' them by steaming them over a kettle or pan of boiling water and clamp them tight.
Oh and before gluing each of the half inch segments together, I'll flatten the faces (to be glued), to clean off any dry epoxy etc. Each dried section will already have the tang slot cut into the them.
Hope that all makes sense and helps
I left all of your post in for this reply because it is SOOO clear, SOOO consise, and SOOO easy to follow that I think it should be made into a 'sticky!' Thanks for your great tutorial. I'm going to knock the plastic handle off my Mora and try a birdseye birch and bark stack handle for it!
Thanks again!
Stitchawl
i love those scandi's...especially that trio in the 2nd to the last pic..:thumbup:
