My wife is asking about restoring two old silver knives where there is now a gap between the handle and the blade.
Sometime in the past I've picked up that this type of handle is held on with brown animal glue and that the 'damage' is caused by them being put into a hot water thereby softening the glue.
Does anyone know if this is correct and that correspondingly the corrective action is to repeat the heating process and just push the joint back together ?
Thanks Rob
I've done exactly what you describe but with bone-handled knives which have a sort-of tang on the end of the blade. It worked perfectly. If, on the other hand, the knives have been through the wash/dishwasher too many times, it is possible that too much of the animal glue has been washed out for a simple repair like that to be any good. I'd try it and see what happens. If I had to reglue it, I'd be inclined to use animal glue because I work with the stuff on a daily basis anyway but if you don't (work with the stuff on a daily basis) you might want to enquire after alternatives.
Nick
Good advice, especially for valuable knives (and keep them away from the dishwasher in future!).
Assuming it has "sentimental" rather than "antique" value, if you don't have animal glue this would, to my mind, be a good candidate for epoxy for its strength and gap filling properties.
However I recently had good results with car body filler on a modern cooking knife with a cracked handle (bits missing) and, unlike epoxy, this is surviving fine in the dishwasher. Not that *I* put it in there.
ow a gap between the handle and the blade.
with brown animal glue and that the 'damage' is caused by them being put in to a hot water thereby softening the glue.
ive action is to repeat the heating process and just push the joint back to gether ?
Thanks Nick
As far as I know both these knives are not dish-washer sufferers so I think there's a chance the glue is still all present. So we'll see how I get on a jug of really hot water. I may even have a honey jar with some beads of glue in it that I got from my cabinet maker brother.
My childhood woodworking was with brown glue - I'm trying to think what tra de still uses it and reckon you are an antique furniture restorer or violin repairer?
Rob
Never had to do it, but if I did I'd use Araldite 2-part epoxy.
Jim Hawkins
Not the best choice of brand tbh
NT
Which is the best?
I've used just about every one and not found any difference,. The secret is exactly equal parts, a thorough mix and STOVE the item at about
60-90C to get good runny epoxy into all the parts and a tougher resultant bond.
I don't know, there are brands people that use epoxy a lot recommend such a s west systems. They do a very wide range. Araldite is pricey and I've not found it the best performer. I've been mainly using Metalux, and for the oc casionl job needing clear epoxy I've just used poundland - its not worth me getting greater quantities online for that.
Perhaps one of the folks here that uses epoxy a lot will add something more .
NT
Probably not a good idea as the problem is that the handle has slipped and has exposed just a small part of the tang. If you were to use another adhe sive, then you would have to heat the handle anyway to get it out and then try and find a way of getting the brown glue out before applying the epoxy.
So just re-heating and pushing the handle back in is a far better option - plus it doesn't allow the thread here to go off on a meaningless tangent ! :>)
Rob
The clue is in the email address, Rob :) Incidentally, if you use some of the hide glue pearls that you mentioned, you'll want a very thick mix for this particular application. And to keep both parts on the hot side of very warm throughout the operation.
Nick
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