The best adhesives for scale-tang attachment in impact-prone cutting tools ?

[JayGoliath]

Hi all,

What have you use to glue your wood/synthetic/antler/horn/etc scale to your knife/axe tang?
I guess natural stuff like mammoth tooth isn't a good idea for such high wear and tear tool.
What would you suggest? I've heard Loctite, Gorilla glue, Quickset.
Of course we don't rely just on the glue to hold them together without the help of mechanical fasteners or pins.

Dear Mod if i've asked the same question i'm sorry as i couldn't find the right word on the search box.

 

[ERIK KNIVES]

Loctite 324 with 7075 activator if you can handle a 3 min set up time and the $50-60 they cost together. it's not a lot of glue, but I got 24 knives out of it. Structural, impact resistant, OK on heat. Great with man made/mixed materials. May be overkill with mechanical fasteners. I'm all mechanical all the time now, because I'll be dead before I find out if my epoxy was up to the task I intended for it - but I love lining scales and grinding them 10 minutes later. The "ooze" cleans up well too with acetone, because as a anaerobic curing epoxy, nothing outside of the contact areas really dries.

Most people may tell you otherwise because everyone loves the glue they use, and I think the cost and speed are good reasons why many go with something else. Not me, I love the stuff.

 

[jdm61]

West System marine epoxy. If it can handle the pounding of winter bluefin tuna fishing in the Bahamas for 40 years, it will do fine on a knife.

 

[GTH11]

Most of my knives these days are incorporating mechanical fastners, and the epoxy is a secondary form of attachment but mostly used as sealent!
I have a tree that has some knives that have been layed to rest in it, for one reason or another, theres a knife that i have been watching lately i built with lacewood 2 corbies, and a mosaic pin in the middle, and i used basic loctite fast set. Well that lacewood has swelled over the corbies and mosaic, and is trying its hardest to jump off that HC blade steel but its just plain stuck and is approaching its second summer in full exposure!
I use ca and accelarator for adhering my liners to scales after a little roughing up with sandpaper, a second benefit of corbies in particular for me is the ability to mock everything up, and test fit, and they force you to work flat and true.
So i would say a mechanical with epoxy, and your good to go!
Greg

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

System Three T-88 epoxy. It is a structural epoxy, which means the resin itself has strength, not just the bond. Available from most any good woodworking supplier, Woodcraft is where I get it. It has a very long shelf life, too.