Oil Saturated Wood for Handles, Would glue stick?

[mgysgthath]

I've been knocking this idea around in my head since I saw Ed Caffrey mention how he soaks his hammer handles in oil for a month, so that they won't shrink on him.

What if one were to take unstabilized maple for example and sink it (wire wrapped with a weight perhaps) in a bucket of mineral oil, baby oil etc for a month or two. This isn't as good as polymer stabilization of course but it would certainly be cheaper.

Do you think it would prevent the climate shift problem of shrinking/expanding or only decrease it?

Perhaps more importantly, do you think epoxy etc would stick to an oil saturated piece of wood? Or would the bolts/rivets be the only thing holding them on?

 

[GHEzell]

I soak my wooden handles (the softer, non-tropical woods: birch, maple, oak, etc) in a mix of boiled linseed oil and turpentine for about 24 hours, or until it no longer soaks in. I do this after gluing/epoxying, after the knife is basically finished, as I too doubt the stuff would stick to oil saturated wood... It is not a permanent fix, the handle will need to be oiled occasionally, but it has a warmer feel than stabilized wood that generally has all the warmth of a piece of plastic.

 

[james terrio]

For knife handles, soaking the pieces first isn't going to do a whole lot - oil only seeps in so far, and you're going to wind up sanding a lot of the treated wood right off. Try it with a scrap piece, then saw it in half and see how deeply the oil soaked in. Plus, I doubt very much that epoxy would adhere to it very well.

Mount with epoxy and bolts, shape and sand, then oil. I just keep wiping it on and sanding it in, letting it cure between "coats" until it won't take any more. Then I burnish it - old soft denim works well.

This may take a week or more. I think this gives better penetration overall than just letting it soak, and the sanding "dust" fills in the pores with a "filler" that matches the wood perfectly - because that's what it is.

For just conditioning tool handles that don't need a fine finish, I imagine just letting them soak would be fine.

 

[mgysgthath]

Hm interesting. I would think after a month or two it would manage to penetrate but I guess I should experiment. The reason I ask is I have 3 sets of flame maple scales which aren't stabilized (really before I knew that you could get stabilized woods). I would much prefer to use stabilized stuff at this point, and have a fair bit of it, but I don't want that maple to go to waste. I suppose the other option is having it stabilized, but I was curious if that method would work or not.

Thanks you've given me a lot to think about.

 

[james terrio]

Hm interesting. I would think after a month or two it would manage to penetrate but I guess I should experiment.

If you have a month or two to wait, I don't see why it would hurt anything to try. Seal a pair in a glass jar full of an appropriate oil and forget about 'em for a while. I'd use Danish oil, tung oil, linseed oil etc rather than mineral oil.

Be careful with oily rags and residue, especially linseed oil! As it dries it can react with the oxygen in the air and develop enough heat to start rag or paper towel on fire.

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

I'd use Danish oil, tung oil, linseed oil etc rather than mineral oil.

:thumbup:

Be careful with oily rags and residue, especially linseed oil! As it dries it can react with the oxygen in the air and develop enough heat to start rag or paper towel on fire.

:thumbup:

 

[mgysgthath]

Wow really? The firebug in me wants to experiment with that.. lol. But thank you for the tip, I had no idea about that. Maybe I will try one set of scales in the oil and get the other two stabilized, no sense wasting any more than I need to.

 

[tim37a]

If you soak them in oil before epoxying them to the blade, they will not stick, guaranteed. You will have to cut off all the oily wood, which could be as much as 1/8" before the epoxy will stick. The only epoxy which may work after cleaning the wood is West System G/flex Epoxy. It is made to glue oily wood - as I recall, they recommend roughing up the wood and scrubbing it with acetone before epoxying.

 

[james terrio]

Wow really?

Yup, really. Don't experiment with it, spontaneous combustion is no joke.

Maybe I will try one set of scales in the oil and get the other two stabilized, no sense wasting any more than I need to.

Now that makes sense! Don't forget to try oiling natural wood like maple or walnut the old-fashioned way as described earlier; it can last for generations with a bit of care and as GHEzell said, it has a nice warm feel as well as a classy look.