wood finish

[drat]

do you think that a good wood fin. would be to mix slow epoxy and rubbing alcohol in a 50/50 mix?the alcohol will thin the epoxy. making it easier to get into the wood and will evaporate later on. the thinned slow epoxy will heat up letting it's self into the wood more easy. and would harden the wood. i think that you would have to have the wood fin., sanded,and shaped.so what do you think?

 

[Longstrider]

I have used a similar process for years to harden and waterproof the wood I make fishing lures from. I thin the epoxy with cellulose thinners and apply with a brush. As the mix is so thin it self-levels and gives a lovely smooth finish as well as soaking into the surface of the wood to give more strength than a simple "on the surface" application of epoxy would do. The only problem I can see with doing this for a knife handle would be that it does tend to give a "plasticy" feel to the wood, making it feel more like something man-made than good old natural wood. I have a couple of Buck Vanguards with heavily varnished/coated wooden handles and they always seem to feel more like plastic than wood to me.

Perhaps you could experiment with adding the coating before giving the wood a final sanding? This might leave the surface of the wood impregnated with the resin for strength and a good degree of waterproofness without leaving it feeling like plastic in the hand. I might well give the idea a go myself as I already know the process pretty well.

 

[woodwalker]

sounds like its asimilar effect to using cellulose sanding seal. This gives a waterproof but plasticky (sp.) feel to the wood and is used on trowel/spade handles as well as on some furniture. I am sure it could be used on knife handles if you wanted to.

woodwalker

 

[davek]

I don't know how this would work with alchohol as a thinner. I have done it, and heard of other people doing it with acetone. It does give the wood more of a regular varnish feel, "plasticy" if you wish. I have read of people stabilizing wood or antler with this mixture also. You can thin epoxy with acetone (less of it) to get it into cracks and such too.