Thread: Finishing wood scales - go go gorilla?

I've had a small idea brewing for a bit until I no longer could ignore it - basically I want to adorn some wood scales with a stone cabochon. So yesterday I grabbed a half finished pair of scales and fitted a router bit on my dremel, and off I went.

Soon after I glued in some gold filled wire for a border, or a fake bezel if you will. I decided to use gorilla glue for the stone and fake bezel wire. After the fake bezel was set and glued, there was a little mess with the expanding glue, and I just used my thumbpad to carefully remove as much from the wire as I could, which of course lead to some gunk that just was smeared on to the wood scales.

I usually finish my wood scales in superglue. The scales in question was already treated with superglue, several layers, but they were not polished. I was thinking to sand off the gorilla glue gunk today, but the now hard and dry gorilla glue smear has left my scales shinier that ever, perhaps even shinier than what I usually get after buffing superglued scales.. So now I'm considering to keep it, and actually to do the rest of the scales in the same fashion.

Cyanoacrylate is a nice hard finish that will withstand the abuse of every day wear, and a well known finisher - but what about gorilla glue which is a polyurethane glue? I am not sure if it mattered that the scales already were treated w CA, but it might be that it acted like a barrier preventing the gorilla glue to soak into the wood, thus leaving this nice result. Anyways, I'm just trying to discover the pros and cons, if there are no ill side effects I might start using this method for my standard treatment.

Anyone have any thoughts, ideas or inputs?

I'd be interested to see how it looks.

Sorry for pic being late, was in clamping when I posted. Cleaned around the stone and rubbed down with a clean piece of cloth, that's all I did so far. Tried to capture the lustrous shine of the wood but I don't feel I fully managed to, Note the inside of the back scale for comparison. Alas, the lighting is bad and my camera is not so fancy. A cliché perhaps, but they do look better in person.



Zebrawood scales with wenge wedge (yes I know, did not cut them yet) :P
Gold filled wire for frame or fake bezel or something, simulated coral (dyed agate) cabochon. Brass washers and pin.

They look cool. Could you explain how you use the glue?

I just did the gorilla treatment to the other side of these scales. Remember they are already done several times in CA so nothing is soaked into the wood. I estimate I used 1, perhaps 2 drops, no more, for the entire scale. Just a super thin layer. Sticky stuff, gorilla glue, so it is hard to be exact, but I dabbed on a very small portion with the sharp end of a toothpick and smeared it out as thin as I could.

It is thick and slow setting, and I imagine this helps it smooth itself out while drying. I never tried epoxy finishing, but I imagine it is similar in this respect. The question remains whether it is durable enough.

Originally Posted by str8fencer

I've had a small idea brewing for a bit until I no longer could ignore it -
...snip...
I was thinking to sand off the gorilla glue gunk today, but the now hard and dry gorilla glue smear has left my scales shinier that ever,
......
Cyanoacrylate is a nice hard finish that will withstand the abuse of every day wear, and a well known finisher - but what about gorilla glue which is a polyurethane glue? I am not sure if it mattered that the scales already were treated w CA, but it might be that it acted like a barrier preventing the gorilla glue to soak into the wood, thus leaving this nice result. Anyways, I'm just trying to discover the pros and cons, if there are no ill side effects I might start using this method for my standard treatment.

Anyone have any thoughts, ideas or inputs?

Thoughts ... gorilla glue is a urethane material that catalyzes with water/ moisture.
Today urethane is used for a lot of different finishes some are very hard
and common for flooring. It is waterproof as well.

I suspect it will work fine for a lot of things.

Fine wood like maple not so much. More porous more open grain wood
or veiner that has micro cracks from being 'unrolled' could profit from it.
You can help it push itself deeper into the grain by wrapping in wax paper and
clamping snugly while it cures (expands as it cures).

Another thing to consider is that there is a new white gorilla glue that is faster drying. I may have to experiment with this as well. I've done a few scales with CA and I like the result so far, but this is very intriguing.

Did you dampen the surface first. I know that on most instructions with gorilla glue you need to dampen at least one surface for adhesion or the initiation of a chemical reaction?

I think it is on www.rodbuildingforum.com, but could be wrong...anyhow a guy there finished a bamboo fly rod with several, like 20?, coats of gorilla glue. His procedure was a small dab on a cloth rubbed on until the glue was dry. My understanding is that it may be a tad more brittle than CA glue, but I have no experience with gorilla glue as a finish. I will say it looked nice and you could polish it out like any other finish to get gloss, semi, matte, or what have you. If I can find it for sure I will let you know. The stone inlay looks great!

I was wrong, it was not at that website. Here is one way to use Gorilla Glue as your only finish: these are not my thoughts. This is a paraphrase, albeit a bad one, from a Powerfibers article:
1.The surface must be dry and polished highly. The finish is so thin that all imperfections will show. This is not being used as a glue, so no moisture is required.
2.Take a paper towel and cut or tear 16 equal squares. Fold a square until you end up with a piece about 3/4" square. Place a small drop of glue on the folded corner.
3. Rub slowly onto the surface until the glue is evenly wiped on. When the surface is covered, gradually increase your pressure until the glue begins to dry. If paper towel pieces stick, just rub over them until they are picked up. Don't worry about dust. The next step cleans it off
4. After finish has been applied, take a clean section of paper towel and buff the surface like you were waxing. This will level the surface of the finish.
5. One coat will cure fully in about 2-3 hours.
6.Subsequent coats will make a glossier finish
7. Probably 4 coats would be plenty for our razor scales.

I hope this helps! Don

@jdog

Originally Posted by jdogseattle

.. there is a new white gorilla glue ...

I've seen that, but wouldn't that one cure white and conceal all that pretty wood?

Originally Posted by jdogseattle

Did you dampen the surface first.

No dampening at all. Remember, this was a stumble-upon. Initially, I had no intension of using gorilla glue for anything but gluing the non wood parts in. I was aiming to clear any remains of gorilla glue away after the setting was done. I already had finished the scales in superglue, and therefore it would not have been possible to dampen the surface, save splashing some water on beforehand. Still, it cured clear and shiny, and appears strong and stable. It did not expand either, like it's supposed to do when working as intended. It's a mystery