The *Unofficial* Fiddleback maintenence, care, optimization, and improvement thread!

I have a wood care/repair question. I'm aware of the characteristics of wood handles and the issues that can arise. I'm ok with them in general. I am looking at a "preventative" repair more than I'm concerned with a cosmetic repair. I have a small issue with my Handyman. There are a couple blemishes in the wood that I fear might eventually chip. Has anyone made a preventative repair in this situation? I'm wondering if a small fill using one of the thin style super glues might work for this application? I appreciate hearing your thoughts before I make any attempts.

I'm also fine with doing nothing at all as it will be a user. I'm just considering all of my options.

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This spot (top of pic) might be my bigger concern. I can catch a fingernail on this. I would hate for the piece to catch and be chipped out during use.
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Thanks in advance for your input.
 
Dave:

I've had a couple of repairs made to wood handled knives using super glue. Fortunately I was able to take them over to the Fiddleback shop to have this done.

Peter
 
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Super glue or epoxy will be ugly unless you can sand it to match the current finish. Certainly achievable but you'll need a healthy variety of course and fine grit sandpaper (or a belt sander) and the appropriate respiratory equipment to do it right.
 
Dave - I have had a couple similar imperfections with spalted maple and olive wood that I have been able to fix with superglue. I used a high viscosity glue that would easily flow down into the crack/crevice.
 
Dave - I have had a couple similar imperfections with spalted maple and olive wood that I have been able to fix with superglue. I used a high viscosity glue that would easily flow down into the crack/crevice.

That's exactly what I was referring to Matt. The very thin style that flows easily.
 
If you have a local woodcraft store, I'd recommend going in and talking with them. There's lots of art and science in "superglue" and the folks at my local store seem pretty knowledgable based on their use of CA in penmaking. "High Viscosity" and "easily flow" seem to be at odds to me. Trapped air always seems to be my undoing when working with a my medium and above thicknesses of glue.
 
If you have a local woodcraft store, I'd recommend going in and talking with them. There's lots of art and science in "superglue" and the folks at my local store seem pretty knowledgable based on their use of CA in penmaking. "High Viscosity" and "easily flow" seem to be at odds to me. Trapped air always seems to be my undoing when working with a my medium and above thicknesses of glue.

Thanks Blaine I will check that out. What I'm referring to is super glue that is almost water in consistency. I've used it for other purposes like cracks in items other than knife handles. I dipped the head of a pin and applied a very minute drop. I didn't have any air issues this way. It flows into cracks. I planned on doing multiple applications into these tiny crevices. I've just never tried it for this use.
 
Thanks Blaine I will check that out. What I'm referring to is super glue that is almost water in consistency. I've used it for other purposes like cracks in items other than knife handles. I dipped the head of a pin and applied a very minute drop. I didn't have any air issues this way. It flows into cracks. I planned on doing multiple applications into these tiny crevices. I've just never tried it for this use.

My Woodcraft has about fifteen flavors of CA. They also have some nifty applicator nozzles that are very thin tubes that snap on the end of the bottle. There's accelerators and so forth.
 
Dave,
As many others have alluded, a quality colorless, workable epoxy will be your best bet here. I personally like zap-a-gap green label or pink label. The epoxy is specifically suited to reliably close gaps in hobby projects, is easily workable, and long lasting. In previous experience, I've done the following on heavily voided black ash burl:

1. Clean the handle thoroughly and let dry.

2. Precisely apply epoxy to voids and let dry fully. You'll notice that the epoxy settles, so...

3. Reapply to any gaps where the epoxy settled, and allow to dry fully again so the voids are flush.

4. Once fully dry & cured (24h), use a high grit (>1200) wet dry paper to gently sand the scales from bullseye to finger guard (as the forge does) in a single uniform direction.

5. Once any excess epoxy has been removed, and the scales are uniformly blended (do both to ensure color / tone match), repeat with #0000 steel wool for a few passes to do a final polish

6. Soak the handle in mineral oil for 15-20min, remove, and wipe off all excess oil

7. Have a beer, you're done!! :thumbup:

Note: the voids where epoxy was used will look perfect "dead on"; at angles and under light, the voids will appear a bit shiny due to the epoxy drying glossy. The steel wool will mitigate this some, but this is the only minor caveat.

Hope this helps!
 
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I can't expect a more in depth answer than that. A very sincere thank you! Again I am more concerned with preventing any future issues than I am trying to obtain a perfect finish. This will be my project this upcoming weekend. (assuming I'm able to get the supplies)
 
The final repair. It's not perfect but I'm pretty happy with how it came out especially when I look back at the original pic I posted. There is a little shadow where the glue is but I didn't want to do too much sanding in those areas. This is going to get used and I am fine with the finished look.

Thank you again Will!

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:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Excellent work Dave!!! If you want to try and blend/darken everything to match, give the scales a quick rub down with badger balm (or similar) let sit, and buff away, should blend nicely and only require minimal reapplication to maintain cosmetic uniformity. Way to go on a solid DIY endeavor!
 
Pt.2: Cleaning up your 01 and A2 blades

“Patina removal 101”

(13 steps using polish removed for message length)

Dealing with heavier patina using a strop

(4 steps using strops removed for message length


I did some searches on this but couldn't find anything this specific. With regard to the Spalting, does one need to be concerned with adversely affecting the Spalting using either of these methods? Would it be a good idea to cover the Spalted area with with masking tape or painters tape before trying to remove any patina?

Thanks
 
I did some searches on this but couldn't find anything this specific. With regard to the Spalting, does one need to be concerned with adversely affecting the Spalting using either of these methods? Would it be a good idea to cover the Spalted area with with masking tape or painters tape before trying to remove any patina?

Thanks

Polishing will remove the oxidized / black portion of spalting -- if you want to retain the original look, tape it off before polishing the blade. If you don't , the 3D spalting will remain but will be flashy/ bright with little to no black contrast after the polish is removed... Which cannot be undone ;)
 
Polishing will remove the oxidized / black portion of spalting -- if you want to retain the original look, tape it off before polishing the blade. If you don't , the 3D spalting will remain but will be flashy/ bright with little to no black contrast after the polish is removed... Which cannot be undone ;)

Thanks for the quick response and info! I thought that may be the case but I didn't want to experiment with something that you can't un-undo.
 
Polishing will remove the oxidized / black portion of spalting -- if you want to retain the original look, tape it off before polishing the blade. If you don't , the 3D spalting will remain but will be flashy/ bright with little to no black contrast after the polish is removed... Which cannot be undone ;)

Ok, here's a report back with my first attempt at removing patina. So far so good :-)

The blade spalting was taped off and I did not get meticulous with exactly matching the curve of the spalting so I covered the spalting plus some of the area with patina. I figured I'd take baby steps, take my time and revisit the rest later.

I followed the directions of washing and drying the blade (prior to tape), and then used the folded paper town and Mother's polish method, wiping in the correct direction and did that for about 3 to 4 minutes each side. There was still some deeper/darker patina left behind.

Next, I reread the directions of using a strop with either pink or green material. I have a strop with green loaded but wanted to be more conservative with level of abrasion so I pulled out the DMT Dia-paste Honing Compound and again, went the least abrasive with the 1 micron paste. I stuck with the paper towel method rather than using a strop. The results were quite a bit better and immediate with patina removal. The shine came out, patina was removed and none of the grind lines were impacted. I removed the tape to compare the before and after areas and was happy with the results.

I haven't yet had time to go back and meticulously apply the tape more exactly just on the spalted area but thought I'd share my results so far. The 1 micron Dia-paste seems like a valid approach although it almost seems like taking the easy way out because it worked so well. I'd appreciate feedback regarding the Dia-paste for patina removal to hear if there are any cons.

Unfortunately I don't have a full patina before picture but this shows the patina that was hiding under the tape compared to the cleaned area below. Prior to cleaning, the blade wasn't terribly dark but was fairly dark (referring to the Embrace the Gray thread for examples)

Again, feedback on use of the Dia-paste would be welcome.

Thanks

 
Awesome work!! The Dia paste is great; I didn't mention it in the OP only because it isn't readily available for everyone. As you can see, the results speak for themselves!

Good job :thumbup:
 
Knife Tip Field Repair, Part I

You are out on a trip, working with your tools and your hands and mind. At the end of the day, you are cleaning your blade around a fire. You look down, and the tip of the knife is gone! Maybe you can just barely see it, because it is still sharp up there, almost jagged. Maybe a large chunk of steel is missing. You need a fix.

The purpose of this post is not to offer professional restoration of a knife tip, although the knife can appear like new if you do it right.

Have time to ship a knife, to get it to the spa, to pay someone to do it? They will probably do a great job. This is the scrappy DIY version.

Presenting the KE Bushie, tip intact:

EMO2ZZZ.jpg


The tip of the KE Bushie slopes down gradually from the spine, terminating in a very fine drop-point.

In my experience, tip damage becomes obvious under a 10x or 20x loupe. Rarely, it can be seen with the naked eye. For the purpose of this post, I have digitally changed the image to show moderate to severe tip damage.

KaYyteM.jpg


The tip of this KE Bushie has been broken off and blunted.

There are three choices when approaching tip repair. Repair from the edge side, repair from the spine side, or work on both sides.

I prefer not to regrind the edge. With this method, repair is focused on the spine of the knife.

Any coarse stone would work, or even a coarse rock. You could even try it on a concrete sidewalk. I prefer the Fallkniven DC4 pocket whetstone. It comes in a leather protective sheath, has a small profile, and has two working surfaces. One side is diamond, and the other side is ceramic. The diamond side is very coarse and can remove metal rapidly. The ceramic side is finer and can be used to hone a knife, align the edge, or set a microbevel (all outside the scope of this post). One final piece of equipment I use is a small strop loaded with Bark River's black honing compound.

To begin, you flip the knife so that the spine is resting on the stone. You raise the handle up and align the spine of the knife on the stone, near the tip, at approximately a 75 degree angle.

emaze.com said:

For this to work right, you'll want the spine side of the broken tip touching the stone, as well as a small portion of the spine. You will push and pull the knife at this angle along the diamond stone until the spine and tip share the same angle.

If the knife is very hard or the tip damage very severe, use only a pulling motion on the stone. Get too aggressive here, and you may break the tip a second time.

The result will look something like this:

lBwtCqp.jpg


Metal has been ground off the spine at a 75 degree angle to restore tip geometry.

In general, the tip damage and repair will be much more subtle than presented here.

In the field, you could stop here, but let's go a step further.
 
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