Removing Stabilized wood handle scales

R

rwn2000

Joined
Jan 6, 2003
Messages
716
I need to remove a set of handle scales I glued up last night. Evidently something got under one side of the scales, causing a gap. I used West Systems Epoxy from AKS and 6-1/8" stainless pins. IS there any way to remove the scales and reuse them or are they FUBAR'd? I was thinking of heating the knife to about 200 degrees in the oven, driving the pins out, and then trying to pry the scales off with a chisel. Will this work, is there a better way?

thanks

randy

PS the wood is stabilized sycamore from BurlSource with 0.030 G10 liners.
 
If the pins aren't peened/expanded, then heating the handle with a heat gun will break the epoxy bond and allow you to remove the scales. Just don't torch the wood.
 
What watercrawl said. Heat them up with a heat gun and the epoxy should come loose. You might even try using a soldering ron on each pin to get them out first. Just be careful not to overheat the blade and ruin the temper. You can wrap the blade in a wet cloth to help prevent that.
 
Thanks, guys. I used the heat gun, and a drift punch to knock the pins out at lunch. Once I figured out that it worked better to heat one pin instead of trying to heat them all, it worked better. But i was to save the scales and i didn't make the wife angry by smelling up her kitchen like i would have with my original plan.

randy
 
I just had this very thing happen to me, however I wasn't as fortunate... I did several knives and let them sit for days as I did other stuff, I tried freezing it and although I got the pins out (mangled mosaics) the scales also came off (in pieces) :(
 
yes, I figure I was lucky and teh fact that had been less than 24 hours on the epoxy probably helped. I'll say this about stabilized wood from BurlSource: these scales are about as tough as a piece of micarta is. I had to smack teh pins good with a hammer to get them loose and the vise didn't mark up the other scale while doing this.
 
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