Thread: Brian's First Blade

Originally Posted by tumtatty

The only issue with the epoxy is that it makes for a pretty "thick" finish that can leave your scales looking overly large. You might want to look into a product called Arm-R-Seal by General Finishes. It's an oil based sealer with urethane and it does a great job on wood. I use it on my scales and it leaves a shiny, waterproof and streak-free finish. You can get it from Woodcraft for $15 or so and have enough to last the rest of your scale making life!

Any pictures? I'd like to see how it finishes out before using it.


New update, and a sad one.

I was fitting the wedge last night and had decided to just go with a pinned wedge so I could stain the scales and pour the epoxy last night, so it could sit while I worked today. I shouldn't have tried to hurry. Famous last words huh? I had a piece of bent brass rod running through the pivot holding the assembly together while wedge fitting, and needed to remove it to drill the wedge hole. I had something in my right hand and tried to save time by not putting it down. I should have put it down.



Needless to say, I wasn't happy. I'm still sick about it, more because I wanted to get it done and move on rather than remake the scale. I guess at least it didn't break while pinning. That would have been heartbreaking.

Also see the lined wedge. Hope this goes well. I made it way too wide, and am going to cut it down a little before I sand it flush.



Mixed up some red mahogany and walnut to get the color. Still too red. I may just go with my ebony/early American mix that really brings out the grain structure without coloring it very much.


Edit, forgot to add: Then, when I went to shave after my shower, I must have been super flustered and not realized it because I GASHED my strop. Like almost unusable gashed. I just put down the straight and shaved with my GEM 1912. Sometimes you have to know when you're beat.

Originally Posted by medicevans

I'm not sure why my glue isn't drying either. My first piece has had gorilla brand superglue on it since last night and still hasn't cured past sticky. The other has had all day to dry and is soft and opaque, almost like it has moisture in it. Puzzling for sure.

Puzzling....

Double check the product --
Some of these glues catalyze with moisture, some in ultra violet light
and some are solvent based.

But gorilla brand superglue should dry in less time than
it takes to type this. The smell is unique all CA smells
the same.

Gorilla Wood Glue catalyzes with moisture and foams.
I think it is urethane based. Strongest wood/ ceramic glue
I know but not one to finish wood with. Almost no smell.

The weather has changed here... warm is good
humidity not so good.

CA also catalyzes with moisture. Not in the same way as Poly glue does. Where your problems may lie is in the nature of eucalyptus oils. They can ruin a good finish very quickly. The best bet would have been to wipe the scales with acetone before applying CA.
With fixing that scale don't be surprised if the fix doesn't hold. There is very little surface area for the amount of stress at the pivot end.

Could it be an old bottle of Gorilla Superglue? Or a bad batch? I just did the inside of a set of scales I'm redoing, and it was dry in less than 5 minutes, on Bubinga. I did wipe down with denatured alcohol.

Originally Posted by deighaingeal

CA also catalyzes with moisture. Not in the same way as Poly glue does. Where your problems may lie is in the nature of eucalyptus oils. They can ruin a good finish very quickly. The best bet would have been to wipe the scales with acetone before applying CA.
With fixing that scale don't be surprised if the fix doesn't hold. There is very little surface area for the amount of stress at the pivot end.

I think you win the prize. The epoxy looked like it was bubbling from the inside, down next to the scale last night. I am assuming it is full of oil. When I get home tomorrow I will check it out, see how it dried.

I need to get some alcohol and start wiping down my scales anyway. Will the alcohol take Minwax stain off wood? Also, I'm seriously considering using what Tim suggested, the wipe on urethene. I'm about past super glossy at this point and moving to semi-gloss. Scales are scales. If I hate them a year from now, I can change them.

Also, I'm not planning on fixing the scales. I thought about it for about 2 seconds. Despite my previous comments about the scales, I'm not putting damaged pieces in my brand new custom. Just won't work.

Originally Posted by skipnord

Could it be an old bottle of Gorilla Superglue? Or a bad batch? I just did the inside of a set of scales I'm redoing, and it was dry in less than 5 minutes, on Bubinga. I did wipe down with denatured alcohol.

Nah. The gorilla brand CA didn't ever cure, and the dime store variety thin CA set up opaque and never fully hardened. I think it probably was in fact oils on the wood. It just keeps coming back to poor prep on my part.

Here is the good stuff baby!
Buy Gloss Arm-R-Seal Quart at Woodcraft

Tim, I'm hoping to grab some of that while we are Christmas shopping today.

I checked my epoxy finish scale trial and my superglued trials.
Epoxy: fail. Looks like a layer of oil bubbles right against the wood. Really made the epoxy not look good.
Gorilla glue: fail. Finally set up, but dried opaque.

Determination: I need to buy denatured alcohol as well as the General Finish stuff. Dang prep, always tripping me up.

To do today and tomorrow:
Remake the back scale and hand sand.
Finish fitting the wedge and epoxy in place.
Wipe and top coat the scales.
Polish the blade back to 4000 or 8000 grit + Mother's polish.

That should take me the rest of tomorrow. Then on Wednesday hopefully I can put the wedge end together in the morning and pin the blade at night. Then show it off at my family Christmas on Saturday, and head to honing on Monday. Doubtful that it will be done by Jan 1, but it would be nice.

I don't know if alcohol will affect minwax stains as I make all my own.
One suggestion: before you hit the Mother's you may want to pick up some "cutting compound" every car place should have it and probably most hardware stores. It is slightly more abrasive than polishing compound and may give you a better finish on the blade.
Opaque CA tells me too much water in the scales or Euc oil contains greater amounts of tannins (or other incompatible compounds) than I remember.

What kind of epoxy did you use? Lowes has stuff called "Glaze Coat" that is pretty awesome. It does make for a "fat" finish imho though. I use it for my steampunk scales to replicate glass