I hope Dale (Orvet) does not mind my quoting him from another thread but it is useful information to this thread, and I did not wish to clutter the other thread.
orvet wrote:I have used white vinegar and water to straighten warped stag. According to a quick bit of research online antler is essentially bone so if your superglue method works to stabilize bone that has been decalcified by vinegar it should work for antler as well.americanedgetech wrote: Ps... if your handle begins to warp as it dehydrates again... look more into the vinegar method. It works on bone by dissolving calcium that can be replaced with Crazy Glue.
I will try it because I have some warped stag that came from the Henckel’s factory that has been drying out since approx 1960 or longer. I was successful in straightening some of it with the white vinegar and water method, but some of the worst pieces did warp again when they dried. I will try the white vinegar and then stabilizing it with CA.
Thanks for the info, I will put it to the test!
I would stipulate however that when attaching the antler handles to the liners I always use epoxy and never a cyanoacrylate glue (superglue or CA glue). The reason is the bond formed by a cyanoacrylate glue is not flexible and it is easy to sheer. Dropping a knife that has the handle secured by cyanoacrylate glue can result in the bond between the liner and the handle being shared by the jarring caused when the knife hits a hard surface. That is also the reason I never use a CA adhesive to install a shield. For both handles and shields I use 5 minute epoxy because it is more flexible than 15 minute and 30 minute epoxy and is less likely to failed due to the shearing forces caused by impact.
What I know is from building, and repairing guitars. The piece at the head of the guitar is made from bone. It is called the head nut or top nut. On old guitars that have sat for many years without string tension that bone "nut" can warp, and pop loose from the head. The preferred method is to replace the original piece but many guys will sand or file it flat, and re-glue it.
That changes both the action (string height), and intonation (length between the head nut, and the tail bridge). That small change may just ruin a beautifully tuned instrument.
The fella that taught me how to complete this repair CORRECTLY is long gone. He worked at 47th Street Guitars in Manhattan for thirty plus years. I was 19 or 20 at the time, and of course I was a budding rock star. I wound up being a better technician so my music never took off.
Anyway... The only reason bone is hard is because of calcium. Most of bone is tissue similar to cartilage. It's that tissue that keeps it together.
Soaking bone in white vinegar (acetic acid) for a period of time will dissolve the calcium, and leave the bone pliable. Left alone that bone will re-harden but it becomes softer and brittle. You can actually cut it with a knife like ... dried cartilage.
Because the calcium is now gone there are microscopic holes left, and those holes can be re-filled with CA glue to make the bone hard again. It is possible that the acrylic polymers used in stabilizing handle materials can be used but I have never done it, and I am not familiar with that process (yet).
So in these warped bone posts I do know my mentors methods work even tho I have never used this method on a knife handle. The application does not matter. It's the bone that matters.
Mr. Dale stated that Antler is similar to bone, and I have to think that is correct. It is formed in much the same way......... I'll have to give it a try when the opportunity presents itself.
Now for adhesives, I have a box of 15 Elk Ridge knives that were sent to me as a thanks for another order. They are all stainless handles with inlay-ed wood, acrylic, and a couple are Abalone. The inlays are almost all popped out (that's why they were free to me), and I can see they were crazy glued. That goes along w/ Mr. Dales statement on CA glue being too brittle for use as a primary adhesive on knife handles. So it looks like epoxy will be the choice there.
Now here is my next question.
In the marine business the epoxies used will be more flexible if the curing time is longer. Faster cure times mean brittle glass, and future "spider cracking".
Are you all SURE about the faster epoxies you use curing to be more flexible? That is counter to what the epoxies I use do. I use mainly BASF Industrial, and RAKA 127. RAKA also makes a 900 version which cures faster but is more brittle so I only use it in certain cases.
I hope this thread is helpful, and I hope to learn a few things here.
