Best adhesive for bonding horse stall mat to G10/micarta?

Daniel Fairly Knives

Daniel Fairly Knives

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I'm hoping to make some scales with a thick G10 or micarta "liner" and a stall mat exterior. I'm hoping to contour the stall mat a fair bit for grip and have the G10/micarta showing through. What would be the best glue or adhesive?

I'm doing an experiment today with Jade G10 and Black Micarta. I'm going to use Star-Bond CA, black rubberized CA and G-Flex Epoxy to bond the stall mat to the G10 and Micarta. I'll give them a few days to cure properly then I'll see how they grind and how strong the bond is.

Thanks in advance for the help, ideas or tips! I'm hoping someone else here has tried something like this.
 
Haven't tried it myself, but with the rubber stall mat, I'd definitely try Barge cement to see how it works.
 
Ive used Loc-Tite epoxy to bind neoprene to steel with good results, and have been told Barge cement works great too. I'm interested to see the results of your testing with different adhesives and liners :thumbup:
 
Thanks guys!

I have some Barge cement, I'll try it too!

Photos later... :D
 
OK Here we go!

From left to right...

Star Bond Gel Type CA - USA Knifemaker's Rubberized CA - Barge Cement - West System G Flex Epoxy

018uh.jpg


I cleaned everything thoroughly with Dawn detergent then rinsed with reverse osmosis water and dried well before glue up. The G10 and Micarta were sanded with 220 grit before clean up.


I included a knife in glue up, I always use G-Flex on my G10, Micarta, and wood scales. The knife on the bottom right is the first knife I ever made, I used G-Flex epoxy on the stall mat and it is holding up perfectly so far.

When I started to glue up the star bond pieces "Luck Star" by Madonna came on the radio, it might be a sign, lol... :D
 
I have had excellent results with Hysol Epoxi-Patch ,which is a black epoxy made for bonding rubber. It used to be stocked by K&G, but is harder to find now.
3M makes a similar product.
System Three is rated for neoprene,too. I tint it black and only clamp enough to get a thin film. Don't clamp hard.
 
bladsmth said:
I have had excellent results with Hysol Epoxi-Patch ,which is a black epoxy made for bonding rubber. It used to be stocked by K&G, but is harder to find now.
3M makes a similar product.
System Three is rated for neoprene,too. I tint it black and only clamp enough to get a thin film. Don't clamp hard.
Click to expand...

Thank You Stacy. :D

The Epoxi-Patch looks like a great product and is inexpensive as well, I may have to order some.

I'd also like to check out that System Three, it is easy to find and sounds great.
 
The one time that I used the stuff for a test knife, someone told me to use CA and it seemed to work great. If you plan to use the stuff for knives that you want to sell, I would try to find some of the fine grain rubber like the Dutch guys use instead of the recycled whitewall tire junk that they sell at Tractor Supply.
 
Several of the knife supply companies sell neoprene handle material in sheets of varying thickness. It makes a smooth dark gray handle with good grip and a "warm" feel. I use it on fillet and hunting knives.
Here is one supplier:
http://www.texasknife.com/vcom/prod...=1334&osCsid=07882c726608e4ae1f86ac9b6a453ca3

The Hysol Epoxi-patch is sold by Loctite as "Loctite Hysol 11C Epoxi-patch". It is a slow cure black epoxy great for handles. There are other types of epoxi-patch that are probably good, but not as good. Avoid the fast cure type. The GPB, medium cure black should work.....but I have always had the best results with a 24 hour curing resin on handles.

Black micarta rods work well for adding shear strength and some decorative features.
 
Thanks again, I was just looking at the material TKS has. It looks nice and solid.

I'll grind out what I have here in a couple of days, I like to let everything cure for a while. Hopefully I have a winner!
 
I tried the rubberized Gorilla super glue, and it seemed to work great.
 
I haven't glued horse stall mat to another material but I have glued it to itself and a cyano (super glue) seemed to work best. I believe that it dissolves and welds the rubber more than simply adhering it. :rolleyes: Not sure if this will hold true in your case but it may be worth trying.

Gary
 
Daniel Fairly Knives said:
Thanks again, I was just looking at the material TKS has. It looks nice and solid.
Click to expand...

TKS is the supplier I got my neoprene from. It's very consistent and very grippy. It's also butt-ugly, but it sure does make a comfortable handle that doesn't seem to care how wet or slimy it gets. I've found there's no point sanding it super fine or trying to make a really complicated shape out of it. It's not "mushy" and you don't have to worry about bolts or pins or a full tang hurting your hand; it's just soft enough to give a little but not so soft as to cause problems.

A hot-rodder would say it's "all GO, no show" :thumbup:
 
I dont want to get off topic here, but I ordered some neoprene from TXknifemakers, and it has gotten all hard loosing the Awesome rubber feel. its weird though I carry it clipped to my pocket with about half the handle hanging out, and the side that faces out is much harder. finished at 100 grit. Maybe I am rubbing oil from my hand onto it? any ideas what I can do?
 
UV exposure?????

I haven't had any reports of this problem yet.

Try giving it a light sanding with 220/400 grit and see if that takes off the glazed surface.
 
sanding brings it right back, but it happens again in a week of carry. I've got two knives with this problem
 
I just ground everything out and tested the pieces by trying to rip them apart at the ground side then on the un-ground side. None of the pieces would seperate at the ground side so I went to work on the easier to grab un-ground side.



The Star Bond was very strong, I'd say it gets second place. I managed to get some of it to delaminate on the micarta but it just tore off leaving stall mat behind on the G10. On the micarta it was bonded well for the most part and I had to rip the stall mat up to pull it off... some mat stayed on the micarta.

The Black Rubberized CA was also great, I'd say it was almost as strong as the Star Bond. The bind didn't seem to strengthen the mat as much as the Star Bond but I still had to rip most off it off to remove anything, once again I had some delaminate and some parts with stall mat left behind.

The Barge Cement seemed strong but ultimately I was able to successfully seperate both pieces with no mat left behind. Barge Cement maybe the way to go for leather but for the rubber to phenolic bond it was a failure in my opinion for this application.

The G-Flex in my opinion is the winner! It seemed to penetrate the stall mat and make it even stronger but it retained the original comfy feel. On the micarta I was unable to remove any without ripping and the G10 was almost as good.



My conclusion is that G-Flex is the way to go for me in this application, I felt it won hands down. I think the 2 CA glues are also good enough for the task but they did not bond perfectly. The Barge Cement is a no go, I wouldn't trust it for this use.

Another thing I noticed was that the G10 seemed to bond better with CA than the Micarta/CA combo , I expected the Micarta to win out here. Both were prepped the same way, 120 grit and washed in Dawn. Maybe I should have tried a much finer grit with the CA, the Micarta seems like it has more surface area and it did not bond as well.

The Micarta GFlex combo was the best, I couldn't even tear it.

The Battle Field.
051pe.jpg
 
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