Laguiole knife scale repair? [xposted from Maintenance, Tinkering & Embellishment]

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Nov 27, 2001
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I posted over in Maintenance, Tinkering & Embellishment and it was suggested this might do better here.

I've got a very nice Laguiole Le Fidele with olive wood scales I received as a gift many years ago. A couple of years ago something fell on it and broke a piece of one of the olivewood scale, near the pin on the one end.

Is there is easy patch for this? I mean, I don't want to replace the whole scale, but it feels slightly uncomfortable in my hand. Can I put some sort of putty or something in? (Unfortunately the piece which chipped out in lost.) Or something else which doesn't require replacing the whole scale? Here are a couple of photos:

YwCZqKQ.jpg


TADdnO1.jpg
 
It would be a shame to fill with putty, and putty is not very strong. If you really did not mind the look just want to use the knife you could build a dam on the blade side and fill with epoxy, you can every color epoxy, black to show the repair or brown to try to hide it. The other option is to find a similar piece of wood and make a repair piece to fit into place. With a little patience you could get it quite close and then use epoxy to hold in place.
 
If it is a work horse I'd go with Willies sugestion. If she is to be pretty or has emotional value I'd go with Patricks
 
Wood putty is pretty soft and does not adhere very well to surfaces, jbweld is a lot stronger and will adhere to surfaces
 
There is an epoxy putty that is sold at most major hardware stores that will work. It will look very bad, though. just knead the putty and mash it into the void. It hardens pretty quickly. Then, just file it to shape.
I still suggest a wood patch. It would be simple to do and would look much better.
 
There is an epoxy putty that is sold at most major hardware stores that will work. It will look very bad, though. just knead the putty and mash it into the void. It hardens pretty quickly. Then, just file it to shape.
I still suggest a wood patch. It would be simple to do and would look much better.

Yes, sounds like a wood patch is the best idea. I wonder if can find olivewood scraps anyway. [I also wonder if mahogany would work too (I might have mahogany scraps somewhere).]
 
Olive has very small grain, try to match that.
I'd use maple before mahogony.
 
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