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Ed Caffrey's Workshop Talk to Ed Caffrey ... The Montana Bladesmith! Tips, tricks and more from an ABS Mastersmith.

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  #1  
Old 05-20-2008, 02:57 PM
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Alan L Alan L is offline
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Accraglas?

Hey, Ed;

You use Accraglas to attach your handles, don't you? I'm about to do so on a honkin' big sword that has osage slab handles, and I'm kinda worried about the runny nature of the stuff. Does it thicken up enough not to run but still be spreadable (and effective!) if you let it sit until it thickens up a bit before you put it on? This sucker has a 44" damascus blade on it and I REALLY don't want to screw it up now. Only been workin' on it for two years off and on now, and the customer wants it this summer.

Thanks in advance.

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Old 05-20-2008, 03:58 PM
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Ed Caffrey Ed Caffrey is offline
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Hi Alan!

Accraglass is going to be runny no matter what. DO NOT try to let it sit and "stiffen up". When it starts to "kick" you will have NO time to work with it. Try this: Put the handle slabs in place, pins, and all. Then coat the entire exterior with a coat a petroleum jelly. Carefully take it back apart (its kinda messy), apply the accraglass were you want it, and then put everything together. Any major runs/drips you can clean up with a Qtip and acetone, and anything you miss will easily pop off after its cured. I do this on all my pieces where everything has to be finished prior to assembly.


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Old 05-20-2008, 04:50 PM
brucegodlesky brucegodlesky is offline
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Alan, Accraglass also makes a gel. It's the one in the green box. I don't believe it's quite as strong as the regular stuff. Also, in each individual box of AG, there is a small pack of ground glass to use to thicken the material. bruce/birdog


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Old 05-20-2008, 06:56 PM
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Thanks, Ed! and Bruce!

Guess I'll add Vaseline to the grocery list for tomorrow, then.

The slabs are held on with homemade Loveless-style bolts of 1/4-20 allthread and lathe-turned brass nuts. Like I said, it's a BIG sword, a two-handed German kriegsmesser kinda thing, the only historical type that actually used big slab handles. The customer has a thing for osage, and even sent me the board he wanted me to use, cut from a 100-year old fencepost, the evil so-and-so...

I thought about adding the glass flocking stuff, but I'd prefer the glue line to be a thin black one without bits of fiberglass showing up. As Ed guessed, everything is finished already. All I want to do is glue the slabs on fairly permanently in case the guy's two teenagers get hold of it and try to chop down a tree.

The blade will take it, but I'm a bit leery of the brittle osage. I know better than to try to pein pins in that stuff, having seen the usual results. My idea was to have everything fitted and ready to go, with countersunk nuts, and to accraglass the slabs and bolts on so I don't have to tighten 'em up to the point of splitting the osage. I wanted to use the AG since it seems to be the toughest epoxy going for that kind of application. I thought about the gel, but the local gunsmith supply only has the regular.

Thanks for the tips! I'll let you know how it turns out, hopefully by this weekend.
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Old 05-20-2008, 11:28 PM
jdm61 jdm61 is offline
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Ed and a lot of others have said to use Accraglass or West System. I chose West because I have seen it used to glue together cold molded custom mahoghany sportfishing boats and I have never seen one delaminate and they have been buidling them like that since the early to mid 1960's It has worked well so far, but you had better believe what they say about pot life. After about 10 minutes, it gets hot, smokes and turns into a little plastic popsicle in the cup in less than 2 minutes.


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Old 05-24-2008, 12:12 PM
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Well, the assemble, grease, disassemble, and glue method worked even better than I had hoped! Thanks, Ed!

Here's the result:



and a closeup of the greased area:



Woo-Hoo!
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Old 05-25-2008, 05:36 AM
brucegodlesky brucegodlesky is offline
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That's pretty impressive Alan! Thanks for the picture.


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