My first really stupid mistake

Last night affixing my scales to the tang of my first knife with epoxy I suffered through my first real knifemaking lesson (mistake!).

Evidently you shouldn't use epoxy when it is 98 degrees F in the garage because it drastically reduces working time. Right in the middle of glueing on the scales the epoxy released a few small wisps of smoke and turned to rubber ( after less than 5 minutes after mixing!). In another few minutes it was hard as a rock. Luckily I already had on one scale and had just coated the tang on side two when this occured, so by quickly mixing another batch ( in about 20 seconds!!) I was able to get the second scale on and apply some clamps. Fortunately I have no visible gaps between scales and tang, but unfortunately, I have cured epoxy on the polished and buffed portion of the scales (front end) and exposed tang that acetone would not remove.

Any tips on how to scrape this off without messing up my previously great polishing and buffing?

Thanks
MIke
OKC,OK

Mike,not a good idea to store epoxy in a warm/hot envinonment either,it goes bad.I keep mine in the house,only bring it out to the shop when i'm ready to use it.

Mike, I feel your pain. Been there. This works for me most times, maybe it will work for you too. I take a small piece of copper, say 1/16 thick and 1/8 wide and about 6 inches long and sharpen it as you would a chisel. Make sure it has smooth cutting surfaces. Now comes the fun part. Heat the cutting edge with a propane torch to very hot but not red or melting. With the edge hot you can push/slice the excess epoxy off the surfaces pretty easily. I use copper because it is much softer than the blade and some softer than the nickle silver that I use for fittings, won't scratch them easily. BUT, I would put some epoxy on a scrap piece of material and practice till you get the hang of how much heat and pressure works. Hope this helps mw

well I was going to chime in but it looks like Mr. Williams has it covered.

Sorry Mike,was in a hurry and did'nt see the question at the end.Good luck.

Mike, you can prevent a recurrence of having to clean glue off of polished areas by first covering the buffed parts (not the gluing surfaces) with a coat of Johnson's paste floor wax. Then when the epoxy squeezes out, let it dry and just peel it off the waxed surfaces. Works like a charm.

Also, sounds like you might be using 5-minute epoxy, elevated temperatures notwithstanding. I strongly recommend that you use slow-cure stuff, of the type sold by K&G. It takes over night to cure, and continues to harden for another day or so. Plenty of working time, and a real solid bond.

Thanks for the great advise. The wierd thing was that I was using Devcon High Strength slow cure epoxy. The package indicated a working time of 30 minutes. I've used alot of epoxy building R/C aircraft and never experienced this. After reading the back of the package this afternoon I noticed a warning not to use it if the temp is higher than 93 deg. F. It was in excess of 100 deg F in my garage yesterday, so I'm sure the epoxy was very warm!

'ya just 'gotta love learning something new!!

Thanks
Mike

Mike,
On the other hand if it really gets hot in the shop like 110+ the epoxy will not set up at all. I have had to take knives into the house and leave them overnight to get the epoxy to set.
Mike

You've already got some great advice.

But a mistake is only stupid if you don't learn from it.