LRB, Glad to hear you chime into this discussion. I highly respect your opinion in knife making as well as a few other subjects!!!!!
I have had about the same results with the Devcon 2T. I rehandled a knife that I literally had to beat the handle off and grind the shattered bits of wood from the knife.
I have not had any failures with Devcon 2t but have had multiple failures with Loctite Hysol 0151 despite following directions carefully. I made sure of this as after the first failure and it continued to give me problems.
That is when I turned t the Devcon 2T and have never looked back till recently when looking at a thread on another site. After the test wars I began to doubt it, (Devcon 2T). I have been giving alot of thought to the tests and the dishwasher test where it failed sticks in my mind. I am not doubting the hard work,expense or effort that went into the tests or the guys who preformed the tests. I do think the dishwasher failure may have been to the double wammy or perhaps I should say triple wammy, and maybe it should be called the quadrouple wammy. Let me explain my therory.
I know Devcon2T will hold up to considerable, and almost constant exposure moisture as I have proven it to my self in past uses. As for a knife I don't know too many that will expose the handle to constant moisture.
Devcon 2T has passed the heat test, as I eariler stated about leaving by accident a knife on the dash of a truck with the windows rolled up in the dead of summer! So heat did not casue the handles to let loose.
The exposure too the dishwasher covers not only two of those elements but two at the same time. Exposure to water and not only water but highly heated water. All though I am not for sure but, I suspect it was later subjected to the dry cycle of the dish washer! This is another element, not to be examined lightly. The super heated water of the dish washer must have penetrated the handle material as there are few surfaces that will not absorb at least some water. The dry cycle then attempts to bake this water back out. This is the very reason a good knife manufacturer who use wooden handles on their kitchen knives will tell you not to wash in a dishwasher. Of course we have all done it or the wife has. Take a look at the handle of those knives and you will see handle failure. Most are riveted and they are shrunk up and warped and the rivet is usually loose.
The dishwasher test, exposed the samples to all of these and then the impact test. I suspect very few of my knives will be exposed to all these conditions and the dropped or wacked with a hammer.
I already stated I felt, as well as did fitzo and others preperation is a big key to bond. Also like LRB I stated I create glue pockets in my handle slabs and blades which allow for bonding from side to side and then I also create a glue pocket at the pins, which allow for extra bond to the pins.
After all this discussion I still think I will continue to use the Devcon 2T becasue, it is readily available, it's cost is reasonable, and I don't belive my customers are going to subject a knife to all those extreme conditions at one time.
Now this is not intended to rain on any ones parade, or discount anyone else testing. I do appreciate all the info. After all I asked for it. I have had a large amount of varying opinions injected into this subject. I am sure this debate will go on long after I am dead and gone and each party will have their own views to this subject. I appreciate the views of others and respect their right to their opinions!
Still here. We just wanted to support the forums, so we took out a dealer membership too. Marilyn's computer logs in as knifemaker.ca and mine lgs in as Rob! Could be either one of us at any time though. 