Rebuilding an old stag handled knife

[fordf250]

for my son. It was beat and he stuck it in the wall and forgot about it. I hope to suprise him with it for Christmas. I have to fill in some holes and that kind of thing to cover up some of the abuse. In reworking the handle I ground off a small pile of fine bone dust. I was thinking of mixing it with a glue, filling in the problem areas and sand it down.

What glue should I use? I was thinking of white glue, simple, easy to work with and should hold up. I know I'm not the first to try this... any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[lukus]

Most white (woodworking) glues aren't waterproof. I would use a two part clear epoxy. If it's for filling holes and cracks, and isn't structural (like holding the handle on a hidden tang) you can mix in enough of the dust to make a pretty thick paste that you can push into the cracks.

 

[Fujimo]

Lukus is correct on epoxy. It will fill gaps and is waterproof. White gule is not water resistant.

 

[Bill DeShivs]

Most epoxies will not dry hard enough to polish well, and you will have dirty blobs there.
A casting epoxy will harden properly for polishing.
Either way, using the grindings as a filler will give unsatisfactory results.