All About Pocket Knives

Over the past few days I have been gathering up some parts to try to make an experimental device for stabilizing handle materials. There was some mention of this recently in another thread "Ugly TL29". This chamber will be used for infusing Wood Hardener and analine dyes into knife handle material. Actually, one should have a separate chamber for each solution to prevent cross contamination. The vacuum hand pump is a Harbor Freight $20 unit and the pipe fittings are 1 1/2" schedule 40. An end cap will be glued onto one end of the tubing, and a threaded adapter to the other. The brass barb fitting will be drilled and tapped into the threaded plug. In use the hose must always be facing straight up to prevent the vacuum sucking the solution into the pump and ruining it. I plan to try using this on bone, wood, and would like to try to make stabilized corncob slabs also. I always wondered which works the best, vacuum to draw all the air out of the material to be replaced with solution, or air pressure, to force the solution into the material and push out the air? Anybody done this one way or the other?

OC, a master craftsman and a mad scientist in one body! Keep us informed how this all goes. Interesting.

Additional reading?

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... fe+handles+

Interesting!
I can't wait to see your results!

I've done in in a home made double boiler setup using Minwax hardner as well. I had pretty good success with it but only on wood handles. I like your think and am interested in seeing your results. If you could use it to dye bone that would be cool!

I can't speak to the use of vacuum in knives or dentistry. I can speak to the use of pressure in dentistry. We routinely used pressure pots, like these, doing acrylic work for dentures or acrylics, in dentistry. The pressure would virtually eliminate any visible bubbles within the resin.
I would be interested to see if it would be able to "drive" dye, into the bone.

Interesting concept.....
using a pressure cooker as a pressure chamber. The lids lock on.... SO, how much pressure can these take before they explode? I guess you would force air into the cooker chamber through an air valve?

I remember my mom cooking with those old pressure cookers. She wouldn't let us get close to them while in use for fear we would do something to make them explode.....LOL.

When I did it I used the same concept as a pressure cooker. I put the hardener in a mason jar along with the scales and sealed it with a new lid. I then put that in a pot of water and heated it on my Coleman stove. As the water boiled, the mason jar sealed and created a vacuum. You could see the bubbles as the air was forced out of the wood and the hardener sucked in. I let it cook until there were no more bubbles, then let everything cool before I removed the scales. It worked pretty well. I put the scales on a fixed blade and gave it to my Dad. Don't remember how long it took.

Pressure cookers top out around 16psi, which is not much.
I bought the PVC fitting to build one as well, but haven't built it yet. I had thought to have 2 threaded caps: one for vacuum' and a separate one with a tire valve-stem for pressure.
First put the pieces under vacuum for 24 hours in the woid hardener, then swap lids and pump it up around 25psi with pressure and let it sit for 24 hours.

You'll see, on the picture I posted...the pressure pot is pre-pressurized...with an air hose...like filling your tire. You can cure it under pressure in cold water...or we would usually put warm water in it. It was never put on a stove and no additional heat was added to the process. I'm not saying you couldn't do something, with a regular pressure cooker...it would just be different and probably not as precise.

I'd definitely go with vacuum. You're probably going to need close to that 30Hg for a good hour. A clear container works best so you can see what's happening. You want to keep it under vacuum until you see no more bubbles coming out of your material. After all the air is drawn out shut your vacuum down and leave the material in the solution overnight. It takes at least that long for it to be drawn in.

Eric