[Ed Caffrey]

What you're looking for is generally known a "5 Minute" epoxy. As with most things in Knifemaking, you will have "trade-offs" you will have to be willing to accept, in order the get the fast cure time.

Fast set epoxies are not waterproof, even though some might advertise it..... also, the faster the epoxy cures.....generally the weaker the bond. Also, be aware that the majority of commercially available epoxies have a 2-3 month shelf life, and a hold life of 5-7 years.

What that means is that in order to achieve the best bond, the components should be mixed/used within 2-3 months of production. The "hold life" means that AFTER the components are mixed AND cured, within 5-7 years the epoxy will start chemically breaking down. That doesn't mean that things will magically fall apart at that 5-7 year marks, it just means that when things begin to degrade.

I learned this the hard way..... I had made a number of knives with a common epoxy, and about 5 years later, I had a rash of knives returned because their handles were "loosening" on them. What happened was the epoxy had chemically broken down. After a lot of research, I spoke with a chemist as a major chemical company who's job was designing 2 part epoxy. Long story short, he told me that his job depended on selling epoxy, and he would never engineer an epoxy that would last forever..... and that almost all of the commonly available 2 part adhesives are designed to fail slowly at the 5-7 year mark after mixing/curing Some of those knives there were returned to me were 10+ years old. What I found when I removed the handles was that the epoxy had crazed (a bunch of fine cracks), and in some areas the epoxy had turned to a dry white powder.

After more research, I started using Brownells AccraGlas. It's a rifle bedding compound, in a 2 part format, but it is guaranteed to have a 10 year shelf life, and a 50 year hold life. I have used it ever since, and have never had another knife returned for "loose" handles. (that was over 20 years ago). Next in line for shelf and hold life is West System Marine epoxy..... 5 year shelf life, and 20 year hold life.

The drawback? Both are "long cure", meaning that you have to allow them to cure at least 24 hours before working on them, and 72 hours for a full cure. So your options are basically use an adhesive that will cure in the time you want, but likely will fall apart in a few years.....OR use an adhesive that takes 72 hours to cure, but will likely last a lifetime.

At some point in time someone MIGHT develop a fast curing epoxy with a long hold life, but currently there is no such thing on the market. You have to pick and choose what's the most important to you..... fast cure time, OR long hold life.