Well Bear, Cutler's Resin is different things to different people. I'll give you my recipe though and you can go from there. The problem is in tracking down all the ingredients.
My Cutler's Resin recipe includes the following ingredients in the suggested amounts.
- 1 pound of brewer's or food grade pine picth.
- 1/4 to 1/2 pound of beeswax (less for hard, more for flex)
- 1/2 cup or more of carnauba wax flakes
- a pinch or two of any aggrigates you choose (brick dust, dry moose dung, diatomaceous earth, portland cement etc...)
Melt the pitch and beeswax together SLOWLY in a stainless steel or cast iron pot and add the carnauba wax flakes after it's fully melted. Pine pitch and beeswax are very flamable so be careful. Then add your aggrigate if desired. I've fuond it unnecessary for knifemaking purposes but you be the judge.
The trick is to make the mixture to your own liking Bear. Don't depend on someone else's recipe. Experiment until you come up with the right proportions for your own needs. Start with small batches until you find the right consistency after hardening. I like it to stay flexible and that's what the beeswax does for it. But it also lowers the melting point so it's a tradeoff.
Straight pitch is very brittle but if that's all I had I'd make it work. Once the tang is bedded firmly in the pitch it's not going anywhere. The same with a full tang handle as long as it's stiff enough that it would never flex and crack the pitch. You can see where this is going. The sky is the limit. Just experiment old buddy. And by all means, have fun! And here's a thread from the archives dealing with Cutler's Resin for you to look at. Email me at
mburnett@cswnet.com if you need help finding all the ingredients.
Here's the link to the archives:
http://www.ckdforums.com/showthread....=Cutlers+resin
Oh, one last tip about using Cutler's Resin for knifemaking. One thing I discovered that will really help you out in the fitup of the tang to handle on full tang knifes is using a thin layer of suede leather as a shim between the handle slabs and the tang. Saturate the leather with hot Cutler's Resin until it's completely soaked and it will act as an expansion buffer and also help the slabs conform to a rough tang surface. Just lay the leather and the slab on the tang and drive your pin through the leather piece for a tight fit. Do that for both slabs and then pein down the pins. After the resin sets up you can trim the overlapping leather off flush with the handle. Hope this helps you Bear.