Spyderco Bushcraft Update

acv said:
Here is what I'm doing:

Step 1 - I soaked the handle in Minwax wood hardener. This should more or less stabilize the wood. I soaked it for a day and a half and let it dry for 2 days. Last night I went over the handle and blade w/ 0000 steel wool to clean it up.

The scales have swelled and the crack is virtually gone and the handles are now flush with the tang. If the scales do move in the future I don't think it will be very much.

Here is what minwax says about the wood hardener:
Minwax® High Performance Wood Hardener is made up of solvents that carry resin deep into the pores of the wood where they evaporate and leave behind hardened resin resulting in hardened wood.

Step 2 : Apply 3 coats of danish oil. The pores are still open and need to be sealed. After that the knife will be ready to go.
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Any pics of before & after?
 
Mine arrived today.No cracks and only a tiny bit of separation of 1 scale.Although scale shrinkage is noticeable.

The separating section...
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The shrinkage from both sides.....
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Apart from this the knife is 100% solid.It feels really great in the hands.Sharp as hell too.A little crazy glue and I'm good to go.
 
I wound up steaming the handle on mine. It showed more cracks,and caused a little bit of tang/scale separation
I used CA adhesive and pressure to fix the separation. I used the CA to fill the cracks.
I then sanded the wood with 200,400,800 grit paper, and after it all dried, I applied MinWax Maple stain. I did several applications, brushing with 000 steel wool between coats.
When that all dried, I finished with a MinWax polyurethane top coat.

Looks great now, No cracks visible. The handle seems to be on right, and I love the knife.
 
I figured out earlier that I'm getting five paychecks next month instead of the usual four so I splurged a bit today and bought one.
 
I got mine - a single crack across the width of one scale (through the lanyard hole). Some shrinkage from the tang as well. I filled the crack w/ superglue, then lightly sanded & then soaked for 2 days in boiled linseed oil.

Looks pretty good - we'll see how it holds up.
 
I am fairly happy with mine. It has scales that are a nice mixture of color and dark lines (bookmatched very well), much nicer than some that I have seen and was worried about getting for myself. Only a single crack, and the scales have shrunk away from the edge of the tang, but have not separated from the glue bond at all.

I was a bit disappointed when trying it out as when I used it as a scraper on an osage axe handle I am forming it deflected/dented the edge to a rather surprising degree. I will sharpen it to try and get to "deeper" steel to see if decarb is at all an issue. There was no way that I would have bought this before the discount but I feel that I got a decent deal, and more of these should be used with how affordable these are now.
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Well, this thread has been dormant for a few days, but I wanted to show my spyderco bushcraft knife. These are not great pictures of a great knife. In the closeup, you may be able to make out the crack that I filled with superglue in the middle of the picture. I also finished the handle with several coats of formby's tung oil finish. The only blemish other than one crack in the handle is that the tip of the knife, and I mean the very tip, is bent just slightly. It should sharpen out in a few passes. I consider myself very fortunate that my knife not so cracked as many that have been posted.

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wow hlee, that's shiny like a holiday!

I waited a few days we started to warm up here and lots of moisture in the air. Even with the Bushcraft in the basement of the house it was able to soak up some moisture and start to close the crack. Then I went and used it to shave down some fatwood from the "Menards" Forest (lol), just to see how sharp it was straight out of the box. It was pretty sharp. I'm still working on my sharpening skills (they leave some to be desired), but it have been practicing with that and a few other blades & it seems like it's working so far. As I was using it, I noticed the handles started to feel like they were meeting the tang steel much more & after using it, the crack closed more. I then waited a day and a half after that and then used some super glue to fill in what was left of the crack. I think it will do nicely. It just has to perform, I'm not putting it on a shelf display, it's a worker.
 
I whittled a bunch with it around a fire last night and the handle is really comfortable!
It was shaving sharp on arrival and received a slight convex to the very edge. Next step is a mirror polish.
Really happy with the overall shape of the blade and handle. It'll be sporting new slabs in a month or so which was the original intention.
 
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