Neoprene/Horse-stall mat Handles?

James Terrio

James Terrio

Well-Known Member
I know lots of folks swear by these rubbery materials for full-tang heavy-duty knives. I hear they provide a little cushion and great grip, even wet, for big camp knives, competition cutters and so forth. I have a CS Master Hunter with a molded-on Kraton (pretty similar, I think) handle and I like it very much for the same reasons.

I have a couple sets of neoprene scales and a possible source for inexpensive mat material. But I have a couple questions for those that have used them...

1) What type of epoxy/sealer works best for bonding them to bare steel? For a full-tang or folder. I have nightmares about something catching the flexible rubber and peeling it right off.

2) How do you pin them? It seems regular peened pins or bolts would dig into your hand, since the scale is so much softer.

3) How do you shape/finish them? Naturally I wouldn't expect or want a glass-smooth surface, that would kind of defeat the purpose. Just wondering about belt/sandpaper preferences.

4) Should I avoid the first two questions and just cut it into washers for a narrow-tang, stacked handle? It seems glueing up the washers and holding them on with a threaded or peened butt-cap would avoid a lot of possible trouble later.

Sorry for the possibly-dumb questions and thanks for your time :)
 
James -

All good questions. First, I highly recommend using contact cement vs. any form of epoxy. I've tried both as a test and the contact cement works much better with the rubber. It took three dogs and an army to pry up the handle material.

Next, for shaping, use any form of grinder or sander you have. This rubber will work great as long as you're not going too fast on too high of grit. Plus, it will clean up any used and dirty belt so it looks new!

Last, pinning. Wonder why I jumped over this? Well, in my case I had the same concerns about it digging into my hand. IMHO, shape your handle, measure the thickness of both handles and the spine and deduct about 1/16" from the total. Cut your pins . (Edited for clarity...duh) Round them off slightly on a disc grinder and then buff the heck out of them to round them off fully. Put a drop of super glue in the hole and press them in place making sure that they seat about 1/16" under the surface of the rubber.

Instead of normal pin material, you can use thong hole tubing for pins and do them like normal or maybe 1/16" under the full width. Then flare the ends of the tubing and buff. You can then "re-rough" up the rubber with some hand sanding to the desired grit.

Hope this helps.
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Just an idea on pinning. Get some cuttler's rivets and a corresponding bit to countersink the head with. Drill the countersink a little deeper than the thickness of the head so that it doesn't contact the hand. Another idea is to use a forsner bit to cut a recess to hold a washer and the head of the cuttler's rivet below the surface of the handle, sort of like a modern interpritation of a Hudson Bay trade knife.

Doug Lester
 
FYI: The best contact cement I've run across for joining rubber is Barge Cement. I found mine in a camping store. Very durable and I've never seen it separate if you apply it according to the directions.
 
Thank you very much, guys! I didn't expect such quick answers/ideas.

Wayne, I never would have thought of contact cement. Any particular brand you like for this application? I like O1, D2/CPM-D2 and CPM154 mostly... I doubt it would make much difference between types of steel but it doesn't hurt to ask. I imagine a coarse surface, shallow divots and thru-holes on the tang would help... I'm a big believer in giving lots of surface area for any epoxy/glue/cement etc to grab onto.

I do use a some-sort-of-rubber thingy for cleaning my belts and swear by it. You know what I mean.

Doug and Wayne, thanks for your thoughts on pinning. All your ideas about "hiding" the ends of the pins make sense to me, to keep them from digging into your palm but still adding integrity to the handle. I'm really anal about using adhesive AND pins/bolts for various reasons. It helps me sleep better at night. :)

Vaughn, I've heard Barge cement is highly recommended for leather work. Is that a brand-name or a general type of contact cement?
 
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Amazon and others carry it. I haven't tried all of their cements, but this one worked like a charm on nylon, rubber and leather. Very tough stuff!
 
Here is one that I put together about 5 years ago. I used Micarta pins and epoxy. The owner sent an email last year and stated that it has seen some hard use and the handle is still like new.

It was finished to a 220 grit with the belt sander. Micarta pins came from Texas Knifemaker's Supply.

Robert

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I fondled that knife of Robert's and can tell you that the pins didn't seem to be an issue- particularly on a small user, it felt as great as it looks. Now if it were a 15" chopper, then maybe, but I doubt it. Neoprene or horse stall mat is not that flexible under compression. Ive got some in the hall of my barn where I shoe my horses - 1000# horse with steel shoes doesn't compress it - dont think you could with hand pressure.
 
Thank you again for your responses, gentlemen, I do appreciate it. I've been accused of over-thinking things, but I'd rather ask folks who know more than me, than guess. :)
 
Thanks for asking James.I was also wondering these same things.
I just received a piece of mat material from Rudy,and a piece of
ballistic foam from Murph.I now have an idea how it needs to be attached.

God bless,Keith
 
Keith,
I'm sorry I wasn't thinking when I made up the package. The queen was hurrying me so she could get out.
I had intented to write down options for working the mat. On both I tinkered with, I used cutler rivets recessed flush after shaping the mat. One was attached with epoxy which held up fine. The other as an experiment, I used Pl-200 construction adhesive. It worked fine once dry, even left a nice thin brown line as in a spacer. I couldn't peel the scales off by hand and the grandsons are torture testing them for the last 2 yrs. Sorry also I never take pics of anything.

Rudy
 
Jarrettknives said:
I highly recommend using contact cement vs. any form of epoxy. I've tried both as a test and the contact cement works much better with the rubber. It took three dogs and an army to pry up the handle material.
Click to expand...

You were using the wrong dog, I've got a Lab that can pry the tires off of a dump truck.:9:
 
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