All About Pocket Knives

Got some Zap A Gap to fix my oops on my Case 6375, got to looking at a few of my other knives with cracks near pin, and wondered if this is a good product to use on scales that are NOT bone. A quick search mentions it to be the stuff to use for bone, but, is it good for plastic/ celluloid, as well? And if it's ok, what do you do about the discoloration that's already in the crack? Just encase it, or use something to clean it out first? A solvent doesn't seem like a good idea, so, looking for the voice of experience...

Cleaning the crud out with some dish soap may help then blow it out real good with compressed air,i wouldn't use chemicals on it as it may react. The crack will likely still show on that material, as for the glue stopping the crack is 50/50 but should help stabilize it. my 2 bits on it

I use the only solvent that won't leave a trace oil film; alcohol.
I use 99% isopropyl alcohol, I get at Kroger's pharmacy. Its the absolute best cleaner I have found for cleaning & degreasing bone before gluing it.

I recommend using an eye dropper or syringe to squirt the alcohol into the crack.
Then compressed air to remove excess alcohol and then add the glue.
Apply light coats and allow to dry completely before adding the next coat.

Zap also makes an accelerator to speed curing and a de-bonder to remove that which you spill, or if you glue your fingers together.

careful with super type glues around celluloid if it is beginning to degrade it tends to melt the cell. JFYI

Interested to hear answers per the original post......scales that ARE NOT BONE.

Google is your friend. Click to expand.

TripleF wrote:Interested to hear answers per the original post......scales that ARE NOT BONE.

Nobody said the op scales are bone.
I said:

orvet wrote:I use the only solvent that won't leave a trace oil film; alcohol.
I use 99% isopropyl alcohol, I get at Kroger's pharmacy. Its the absolute best cleaner I have found for cleaning & degreasing bone before gluing it.

If isopropyl alcohol works as well as it does to clean and decrease something as porous as bone it should certainly work well to a plastic knife handle. I have used isopropyl alcohol to clean bone, ivory, stag, Delrin, celluloid and most other knife handle materials and all with no ill effects to the handles. It's one of the cleanest & best solvents and one of the least expensive.

I don't see the point you're trying to make.

My bad....thought he was asking about BONE specifically

No sweat buddy, its all good!

Ya'all got me confused as to who was confused first....I did state I'd read it was THE product to use on bone, and was it ok to use on other materials, that seemed to be answered early on At any rate, I used it on the NOT BONE Queen I'd posted, with no noticeable ill effects. Yay, Zap A Gap and alcohol! Though, full disclosure, I didn't get it as clean as I'd have liked to.

SteelMyHeart85420 wrote:Got some Zap A Gap to fix my oops on my Case 6375, got to looking at a few of my other knives with cracks near pin, and wondered if this is a good product to use on scales that are NOT bone. A quick search mentions it to be the stuff to use for bone, but, is it good for plastic/ celluloid, as well? And if it's ok, what do you do about the discoloration that's already in the crack? Just encase it, or use something to clean it out first? A solvent doesn't seem like a good idea, so, looking for the voice of experience...

You aren't the only one confused!
All this time I thought we were talking about a Case knife because of your reference in the first line to “my Case 6375.” When I was posting earlier today I expanded the picture to see the knife more clearly and saw that it was a Queen.

Since I thought it was a Case I assume the handles were Delrin and not celluloid. Now I see it is a Queen and though I don’t know what material Queen used in their handles, the coloration of the handle still looks like Delrin to me. I didn't have a clue that it was a Queen because I didn’t expand the picture.

I’m glad the alcohol and Zap-A-Gap worked well, whatever the handle was made out of!

Ultrasonic cleaners work well for cleaning out cracks. I also use a steam cleaner, which works very well.

Ultrasonic cleaners are excellent for getting dirt out of the knife, there's no doubt about it.
I have two different sizes of ultrasonic cleaners and use them on most of the knives I work on, with the obvious exception of celluloid primarily because the sonic cleaners will usually heat the water a few degrees.

I use the isopropyl alcohol after the sonic cleaner especially on an assembled knife like this, if I'm going to glue a handle crack.
The isopropyl alcohol does double duty in this case; it will dissolve grease as well as combine with the water and cause it to evaporate.