Choppin
Senior Member
I recently bought a few vintage western handled knives, Japanese and Sabatier-style. I’m having a lot of fun restoring them, but I’m not so satisfied with my solution to fill gaps between tang and scales.
I’m using low viscosity instant glue. It does fill the gaps well, but the wood directly around the tang absorbs it and it’s hard to sand it off (it goes deep and I’d have to remove more wood than I’d like). Of course if I sand the handle before applying glue the wood absorbs more of it, so I’m glueing first, waiting for it to dry, and then sanding. But this issue still happens.
Is there any way around this? Maybe masking the wood with tape? Or just using a different product? I thought about waxing or oiling the handle before applying glue but I believe this would make it harder for the glue to bond to metal as well.
It’s not a huge deal - the glue is transparent after all, but the resulting finish is different. Just wondering what you guys use.
Thanks!
(most of that shiniest area is glue on top of wood - the gap that was filled is only the 0.3-0.5mm closest to the tang)
I’m using low viscosity instant glue. It does fill the gaps well, but the wood directly around the tang absorbs it and it’s hard to sand it off (it goes deep and I’d have to remove more wood than I’d like). Of course if I sand the handle before applying glue the wood absorbs more of it, so I’m glueing first, waiting for it to dry, and then sanding. But this issue still happens.
Is there any way around this? Maybe masking the wood with tape? Or just using a different product? I thought about waxing or oiling the handle before applying glue but I believe this would make it harder for the glue to bond to metal as well.
It’s not a huge deal - the glue is transparent after all, but the resulting finish is different. Just wondering what you guys use.
Thanks!
(most of that shiniest area is glue on top of wood - the gap that was filled is only the 0.3-0.5mm closest to the tang)
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