Wood glues on wood handles?

G

Guy Thomas

Joined
Feb 1, 2000
Messages
1,370
I would like to glue up some blocks for handle material incorporating two or three different species of woods, say a band of walnut followed by cherry, etc., is there any reason not to use a good carpenters glue for this procees and then use the epoxy for bonding the finished slabs to the knife? I'm new to the forum and while I've always been interested in knives I've only recently decided to start making them. The trouble is an all to familiar thread I've been reading in here, not enough money, time, space, etc. I'm still on the ground floor trying to set up my shop (garage) and build my workbench which like most of the things I build end up taking far longer than I thought and end up far more elaborate than planned! I've got lots of ideas about knifemaking and many of my questions have already been answered in the forums! Great help!-Guy T.
 
The chain will only be as strong as the weakest link. What I mean is that you need to make sure that the quality of glue that you use to put the different woods together, is as good, or better than what you use to attch it to the blade. Things to think about are water resistance, shear and hold strength. There are probably a number of ways to go, but I would think about using the same glue that you intend to use when attaching the handle to the blade.



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Ed Caffrey
"The Montana Bladesmith"
http://www.caffreyknives.com
 
Hi Silent

welcome to the forums.

Mr Caffrey may be right although I've used titebond II on glue-ups for alot of my handles. Titebond II is moisture resistent and does move with the wood (it will move some). Then I glue the scales on with epoxy.
I have had no problems.
I have not had as much knife experience as Mr. Caffrey so you may want to listen to the pro and go with epoxy.
Your more likly to starve the joint if you use epoxy so be carefull not to apply too much pressure.

John

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http://www.toptexknives.com/yeackley.htm My contribution to the world of knife fanatics.
http://www.sixgunner.com/blumagnum/default.htm

[This message has been edited by John Yeackley (edited 02-02-2000).]
 
On this application, I would go with epoxy. There would be nothing gained here by using a wood glue. Although Tite-bond is waterproof, its main purpose of adhesion are not generally used in this application (on knife scales). See below......

One word of advise (Hey, maybe this is shop tip!).

If you are doing this with scales you will have an obsolute "pain in the behonkus" trying to line up all the pieces and making them even on both sides if you try to glue the pieces together before you attach them to the blade.

What I do is this (and it takes some time). Take the most forward pieces (closest to the ricasso) and if any pins will go through them, go ahead and drill the pin holes. Pin the two pieces together and sand the bottoms even with each other, ensuring they are flat. Place them on the blade, it is not necessary to glue them, just put them there and let the pins hold them there. Do the next "section" of handle material the same way. Then you are ready for the third and final piece. Once this is done, then can glue all six pieces onto the blade. If you don't do this, they will not be even on both sides of the knife and the lines won't match up.

When you do this, you are essentially tripling the time it takes to put the scales on your knife but it really looks good and is worth it.

If someone has an easier way, PLEASE let me know. The reason I do it this way is that if you try to make a multi-material scale and one of the scales moves the least little bit, the lines will not match and it looks horrible (like the first one I did)!

C Wilkins
 
silent

If I want, for example scales 1 1/2 x 5 x 1/4made of 2 or 3 different kinds of wood. I cut my blocks 1 1/2 x 5x 5/8 then glue up and let set. Then I flatten both sides and resaw down the middle. Now I have 2 identical scales that are flat on one side and ready to fit to the handle. Hope this helps. Mike

mvknives@lightspeed.net
 
Same type of question but a slightly different application (I think) Has anybody done handles that are laminated lengthwise down the handle (like those french knives with the bee on them) as in, a 1/8" ply of white micarta or against the tang, with a 1/8" layer of wood , ect? How did it work, any problems, ect?

James


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Those who are willing to trade freedom for security deserve neither, and in the end, seldom retain them!
 
I've done exactly that before. I rehandled a paring knife for my mom. The handle was made out of alternating peices of cherry and poplar. I used Titebond II for laminating it and epoxy to glue the slabs to the tang, along with brass pins. Titebond actually bonds to wood much better than epoxy as does almost any qualtiy wood glue, so its better to use them for the laminating. Titebond II is made to be type 2 water resistanc. Good enough for outdoor aplications. The 2 most important things to do are use a lot of glue so it soaks into the wood and completley coats all veneers. You don't want to miss any spots and have it start to delaminate. The second is clamp it as tightly as possible from several different points.Thats to keep things straight, and make sure all the peices have complete contact, no gaps. I put mine ina workmate bench so that the edge of the slabs were even with the bottom of the table top, then cranked it down as tight as possible.Then I took 3 C clamps and put one on the middle and one on each end of the top edge of each slab and cranked them down tight too. That left no noticable gaps in the edges and kept things straight and tight.Make your slabs a lot bigger than you want to use on the knife too. That way you can trim the edges and get rid of all the glue that runs out,and get rid of any edges that didn't come together quite right.It really isn't to difficult.

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Fix it right the first time, use Baling Wire !
 
Great replies, thanks for the input and food for thought. Looks like I've got some experimentation ahead of me. I just love playing mad scientist! (I can see my wife now discovering me glued to my workbench with assorted bonding agents!)-Guy T.
 
T.J...I did a Bowie with a strip of bloodwood running lengthwise between two strips of curly maple. I made the laminations before I layed the scales. The customer was really happy with it.
Oh, I better add that I used wood glue to make the lamination and that everything after that was just normal scale installation

Jake

[This message has been edited by Jake Evans (edited 02-02-2000).]
 
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