Tending to a bone hilt

blue lander

blue lander

Joined
Aug 16, 2011
Messages
1,386
My little JKM-1 has been getting a lot of use in the kitchen since I bought it, it's really a handy little knife. I've kept the blade fairly nice but the bone hilt is starting to deteriorate. I was thinking to just pour some superglue in there to seal up the cracks. Any other advice?

 
I would soak it over night in mineral oil. The bone will swell slightly after it absorbs the oil. I be its bone dry from the dish soap that tend to break down oils. I have had cracks disappear with a good soaking in mineral oil.
 
Id use epoxy before superglue. That is if it dont swell up with the mineral oil. Superglue will eventually break up and fall out of that large of gap. Hey! Our "reply" button is back?:thumbup:
 
I'm surprised.
My wood expands and shrinks, Horn kind of bends and cracks but bone is rock solid.
I would blame it on water/dish soap.
Mineral oil is great for penetration.
Once this is done I would add a few layers of Tung Oil. Tung oil solidifies (incorrectly called drying) after about 2 days and creates a water proof layer. This should lock in the other oil and protect against water and soap for a while.
Make sure it's tung oil and not tung oil finish or some other newspeak they invented to disguise that there's no or little real tung oil in the bottle.
My Home Despot and Lowes didn't carry it but the large online distributor named after a rain forest had a good selection.

I also like lanolin/sheep fat. It waterproofs nicely and even protects metal but is a bit sticky.
 
Doesn't look like bone failure to me but the attaching laha breaking down. Hard to tell for sure from the picture but the bone looks good.

I'm on board with the soaking in mineral oil idea but I'm also semi reluctant. If that doesn't work then any chance of epoxy or my choice would be acraglas adhering would be out the window.
But that being said the bone panels are pinned on so the laha is just a secondary insurance.

If it was on my bench I think I'd take a razor knife, exacto, what ever tiny little sharp pointy thing you have and carefully clean out what ever adhesive you can. Then I'd confirm that there is no movement on the panels and no need to peen the pins a bit to tighten things up. After that I'd probably fill the gap with epoxy or acraglas and let it set for 24 hours.

Then I'd do the mineral oil soak and clean off any excess epoxy etc that needs to be removed.

I could be off on this but that would be my plan of attack. The mineral oil soak alone just might make everything okie dokey too.
 
Superglue(CA glue) is what a lot of production companies use to seal bone and stag. Put it on sparingly and use a q-tip or something to smooth it out before it dries.
 
philllll said:
Superglue(CA glue) is what a lot of production companies use to seal bone and stag. Put it on sparingly and use a q-tip or something to smooth it out before it dries.
Click to expand...

I use the super glue on end grain on bone or stag, or any fibrous sections. It works really well. The q tip application works super and leaves a really nice smooth presentable finish.
 
It doesn't show well in the picture but a streak in the bone went really spongy, presumably from washing and whatnot. I think I'll rehydrate the bone with oil, seal the spongy bits with superglue, and then smear the rest with lanolin

And maybe pour some epoxy between the scales and tang
 
Id do the glue and epoxy first. Let it cure a day or so then oil it. You want the glues to adhere to the bone. Glue wont adhere to oily bone very well.
 
You'll need to seal it with superglue before you oil it, or the superglue will not adhere or penetrate into the porous areas! Same for filling the gap between the scale and the tang with epoxy. Do the repair and sealing first, then oil it if you want. But I don't think using oil on bone is a good idea. If you insist on sealing it with something, I'd use a wax, instead of an oil.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top