I'm almost finished my first complete knife and would like your thoughts on a finish treatment. I made a puukko style variant with a laminated wood handle with leather spacers. I tried epoxy on the handle but it failed. I've used gorilla glue now and it seems to be holding well. Thing I'm concerned about is the leather spacers getting soft and losing thier bond. In keeping the Scandanivian theme, I was thinking about melting some bee's wax and mixing it with Danish oil. What do you think ??????
No worries, I'm finishing it with seven coats of danish oil over the next week or so and finish with bees wax if I feel it needs it.
when I make a stacked leather handle I usually soak it in a light oil like canola oil then simply buff it
Jackson, does the tang on your knife goes through the handle? If so, you shouldn't worry about leather spacers getting soft. I usually soak my wood handles in warm teak oil or danish oil. Oil must be very warm, but not hot. In other words I can still put in my finger, but I can't keep it in there. If you go to hot your glue will start to fail. Keep your handle in oil until air bubbles will stop coming, then let it cool while still in oil, wipe it off and apply second layer next day. No need to warm it up this time. I use this recipe on handles with thin suede leather spacers and they become nice and solid, but I never used it on stacked leather handles.
I have found that the latex minwax spar varnish does a really good job. Instead of soaking it in oil I soak it in that. Kind of overkill but really makes it durable.
Thanks Guy's, the minwax latex sounds interesting, in that I used a water based gorilla glue. Yes Roman, the tang goes through the handle but not quite all the way. Embedded about 1/4" in the wood butt end. I'll have to see if I can find the minwax spar vanish for this one. What is everyone favourite glue ??? I had poor performance with epoxy in this case with the wood and leather.
What epoxy do you use? I use G2 and it works perfectly well with the wood and leather. You need to de-grease surfaces with acetone and then it bonds really well. You can even thin epoxy with acetone and soak leather with this before gluing - then after drying leather will be rock hard.
So to adhere scales I use the 5 minute lepage epoxy. For the stacked leather I use latex wood glue, diluted to 50 %, I put a steel rod through the holes punched in the middle and squeeze the hell out of it in a vice. Leave it for 1 day. Then I file the handle to basic shape, pull out the rod, insert the knife pin, put on a pommel, shape the handle on the sander, make it smooth, then I eurethane it three times. Shape and smooth it again. Repeat until I am happy.
I used home hardware's super strength, slow set 4 hr epoxy. Maybe I didn't mix it long enough but I thought I did. I cleaned the leather with gun wash or what its equivalent is acetone or a lower grade of lacquer thinner. Much the same thing I believe. I tried soaking the handle in varathane's water based outdoor diamond coat for about 4 hrs. I didn't like the look so I wiped it off and force dried it in my toaster oven for 8 hrs at 50* C sanded it and put the first coat of good old TruOil on it that I've used for years on gun stocks. Maybe six more coats and some Johnston floor wax and I'll post some pictures.
Than it could be wrong proportions or not mixed well enough. Could be something wrong with resin itself. I once came across an epoxy which would never completely cure. It wold be almost hard, but still remain somewhat soft... I just disposed it and bought a new one.
I may have got a bad batch.I'll have to mix up some and test it. Sucks when you pay good money for crap. Can't say I have much faith in crazy glue. Sticks fingers together pretty good though TruOil is looking good.
I found the CA made by Premium knife supply is pretty good. Before I discovered fast epoxy it was all I used. None returned to me yet after 6 years (here's hoping none will ever be).
