What glue do you use for pinless handles?

hmm, while im very new at knife making, the only way i think any pinless knife would hold up is if you had a way to position the scales, place in a thigh vice, inject epoxy/resin into precut groves in the knife tang at such a high psi that it penetrated deeply into the scalesand was able to dry fully. now the equpment to do that woudl be an arm and a leg or the labor would be alot to get that done properly if you didnt have machenery to do it... hmm but the "groves" would have to be thin holes all teh way through the tang with small holes drilled into it so you have esentialy a pole of glue with small braches coming out of it that end up inffused in the scales.

wow that would be realy realy complex, cool, but complex

-matt
 
I've had hidden pins that work quite well. Actually screws...

This is of course for a full tang knife. I will thread the tang with the size screw I am using, usually a 10-24 or 10-32. Put the screws in the tang and leave at least 3 threads exposed on each side. Then drill holes (not all the way thru) the handle material and then wallow out the sides of the hole with a small ball cutting tool on my dremel. The hole looks like an inverted mushroom. I then epoxy the handle material on to the tang and I have never had one fail.

I have also used hidden pins on hidden tang knives as well. I will drill a couple of holes in the tang and have the slot large enough to slide the the tang and pins inside. This works quite well.

Having said this, I still feel more comfortable with using bolts like these that I get from TKS instead of pins on full tang knives.

300B-550B-GRSC.jpg


Heat and cold have never affected the bond of a bolt on a knife! :D

As far as epoxy goes, I like using Shafting Epoxy from Golfsmith. It is convenient and readily available to me where I live. I believe it is actually made by West Industries. I figure if it will hold a golf head on a club then it ought to do a pretty good job of hold scale on to a knife.

Not to be disagreeable to what has been said, and while some folks may find it works OK, I make it a point to not use 5-minute epoxy of any kind on a knife. For one, it isn't waterproof. The 2-ton, or 30 minute epoxy is the bare minimum I would ever use. In the summertime here in Texas, 2-ton epoxy IS 5-minute epoxy!

Craig
 
I have some 3M VHB (very high bond) tape. I haven't tested it entirely yet but seems to be very strong. Mike Stewart gave me a little background, this is used by Victornox(sp?) to mount the scales on Swiss Army knives. 3M bought the rights to make and sell it from them. I've never seen a swiss army knive missing a scale---but I haven't seen every swiss army knife either and you could say that any that lost a scale would be retired and replaced. Still, it's what they use now.
 
I am only a hobbyist/tinkerer (not professionals like some of the posters above) but i've found Gorilla Glue to be good for bonding metal and wood. But i've only put handles on five or six knives.I usually use pins/rivets and glue, but as an experiment i've done a couple with just glue. So far so good with no problems. But generally rivets/pins and glue together is best especially if its a heavy use knife for chopping etc.
 
"The nails/screws are only there to hold it together till the glue dries."

I like pins regardless of their usefulness, which isn't in question, but if a person wants to, I'm quite sure they can buld a very durable knife without them.
 
The pins add a temendous amount of strength to handle assy. Forget about using the cheap epoxies, esp. devcon, been there done that. There are many proven products out there, some listed above. What I have found that I like the best is two to one marine epoxie from tap plastics. I think if you do a perfect prep job and use a top line epoxie that the handles would stay on for many years, but why take the chance, hiddin pins are very easy to utilize and with there use it will not come apart ever, even under extreme abuse. Be sure to clean the tang and handles with acetone or acohol, sand both surfaces with a very rough finish (36 or 50 would be good). Do not touch the parts with with your fingers, make sure water will not bead on the surface. Do not clamp with to much pressure, just enough to press out the excess adhesive.
For hidden pins I use allen head set screws, the threads offer maximum grip possible.

Leon Pugh
 
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