Kirinite bonding

MBB

MBB

Joined
Apr 18, 2014
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244
I'm making a knife (15N20 drop point, scaled to his hand size) with my 12 year old son, and he has decided on Kirinite scales. We're planning on using 1/8" glow-in-the-dark Kirinite liners with 1/4" Kirinite blue-with-green-stripes scales (remember, he's 12). He's sold on the glow-in-the-dark liners and won't change his mind. This is not likely to be a hard use knife and will likely sit on a shelf.

I have pretty reasonable experience with working with acrylic (salt water aquarium fabrication) and it seems like I should be able to directly bond the Kirinite layers together with something like Weld-On #4 or Weld-On #16. Has anyone tried doing this? I trust a Weld-On #4 bond vastly more than superglue, as it is functionally an acrylic weld.

Thanks,

Mike
 
I’ve used GFlex on a half dozen Kirinite handled knives. I scuff the mating surface with opposing directions at 80 grit. Clamp with small harbor freight spring clamps and wipe any excess with a cloth and a little acetone.
 
I'm with 3fifty7, once I have the liners glued to the scales, ill cut the scales to the shape of the tang. I will then drill my holes for the pins and then wherever there isn't a pin ill drill holes through the liners (tang side out) and a tiny bit into the scale material. This lets the epoxy grab some of the scales from both side (matching up the through holes in the tang), and not just the scales to the liners, liners to the tang..
 
Never used Weld-On, but I would always recommend a high quality 2-part epoxy. And I prefer the 30+ minute set time kind. There are many, many choices....and each person likes their own flavor. My choice is System Three T-88.
 
Weld-on is an acrylic to acrylic solvent cement, IIRC. It makes a solvent bond by "melting" the two pieces together. It would work fine for bonding the liner to the outer scale. For the bond between the krinite scale and the metal tang, use a good grade one hour or longer cure epoxy and rivets/pins.

Some epoxy suggestions are:
G-flex
T-88
K&G 24 hour epoxy (a great 2-part knife scale epoxy from K&G supply)
Accraglass
 
Thanks, Stacy. That was my intent.

I will try to post a few pics of the bonding to illustrate the process once the scales arrive.
 
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