All About Pocket Knives

herbva wrote: ↑Fri Dec 30, 2022 2:44 pm Nev, I recommend a thorough sanding of both surfaces with very course sandpaper (60 or 80 grit) to give the epoxy a good, clean, stable but rough surface to "grip" onto, and then a thorough scrubbing of both surfaces with rubbing alcohol and a clean rag as a last step before applying the epoxy. And, don't touch either surface with your fingers before pressing both parts together (fingerprints have enough oil to weaken the bond).

Reverand wrote: ↑Fri Dec 30, 2022 11:13 pm Ditto on roughing the surfaces. On bone slabs especially I sand the bottom side before installing. Bone from Culpeppers and other suppliers may not be completely flat, and the dyes cake onto the surface and will keep the epoxy from adhering.
Use Denatured alcohol to clean, rather than rubbing alcohol. It leaves fewer impurities on the surface.
I have used several different epoxies with pretty much the same results. For fairly fast curing times, the Gorilla Glue 5-minute clear epoxy has worked well for me.
1725FF9B-6D4F-44E7-BB38-17F57421D9D8.jpeg

A few years ago I read an exhaust exhaustive test on another forum where they tested dozens of epoxies, and some definitely work better than others. But they found that surface prep made a larger difference than the brand of epoxy in most cases.
One of the weird exceptions was Gorilla Glue original. It is not an epoxy, but held better than most expoxies. I have used it several times with great success. You just have to let it cure overnight, and understand that it will get "foamy" and boil out of every crack and crevice. You have to sand it off around the edges and bolsters. Still, I have tried to remove handles after gluing them on, and I had to split the wood off in pieces and sand the remainder off of the liners. The glue was stronger than the wood. There is a clear version of this that works, but doesn't hold quite as well as the original.
8E5AE82A-49D8-440D-A934-6CFE5CF6E51E.jpeg

And, no, I do not own stock in this company. I just try to use inexpensive products that I can buy from local small businesses when I can.
Your mileage may vary, but these work for me.

Oledadsknives wrote: ↑Sat Dec 31, 2022 12:03 am I built a fixed blade knife for my daughter and put Buffalo horn handles on it with slow dry jb weld. About a year later both handles came loose at the end. It’s like they warped due to humidity I guess. I took both off, resanded, drilled angle holes in horn, cleaned real well and put them on with panel bond. Never came loose again after about 15 years. Panel bond is what we used in the body shop to glue roofs on cars and vans. Very stout!

Jimbo

Nev52 wrote: ↑Sat Dec 31, 2022 1:34 pm

Oledadsknives wrote: ↑Sat Dec 31, 2022 12:03 am I built a fixed blade knife for my daughter and put Buffalo horn handles on it with slow dry jb weld. About a year later both handles came loose at the end. It’s like they warped due to humidity I guess. I took both off, resanded, drilled angle holes in horn, cleaned real well and put them on with panel bond. Never came loose again after about 15 years. Panel bond is what we used in the body shop to glue roofs on cars and vans. Very stout!

Jimbo

Jimbo,
I have seen panel bond used on Aluminum panels where they did not tig weld. I did not think of using something like that But from what I recall that might be overkill for a pocket knife handle. Thanks for the information
Nev

ea42 wrote: ↑Sat Dec 31, 2022 3:22 pm Same here with the sanding, 60 grit both sides. I used Devcon Epoxy for a while a few years ago but found that it failed at times due to heat buildup in the finishing process. Switched to G-Flex and haven't looked back. it works great even when things get a little hot. I pin my handles on regardless though, I just don't trust glue alone to hold them on. One thing to keep in mind is that you don't want to use super strong clamps such as the metal pony clamps. I think the biggest cause of bond failures is glue starvation. Strong clamps squeeze pretty much all of the glue out from between the surfaces leaving just a thin film to do the work which is apt to fail. I just use the cheap black plastic clamps like these:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B086D ... =UTF8&th=1

They exert enough force to hold the pieces together while leaving enough glue for a strong bond.

Eric