Who's using Kirinite?

S

scherar

Well-Known Member
I've made 4 or 5 knives using Kirinite and had a disbelief moment yesterday.
I met up with a customer/friend that bought a knife from me & we handled it with Kirinite. He was showing it off & the handle material caught my attention real quick! This knife is only about 8 months old & there was some serious gappage going on near the bolster; reminded me of seeing an old knife that had bone or wood on it & the material move a bunch.

I didn't say anything I guess because I was in disbelief. I'll probably bring it up in due time, but thought I would do some checking before. I never would have thought this could happen. I know any material can move, but this seemed excessive for a synthetic.

Any thoughts???
 
I've used it several times and always use mechanical fasteners as well as epoxy,I will say you have to have s extremely rough surface because epoxy sticks to it about as well as Saran wrap.
 
I leave my Kirinite handle at 120 grit finish, G-Flex Epoxy and use mechanical Loveless bolts. I've made in the area of 40-50? knives with Kirinite handles and no problems.
 
I didn't see any sign of material coming loose of tang. I used Corby bolts, kirirnte roughed on fresh 60 grit belt & tang sand blasted. Nothing done different than any other knife. What I saw looked more like bad shrnk
 
I didn't see any sign of material coming loose of tang. I used Corby bolts, kirirnte roughed on fresh 60 grit belt & tang sand blasted. Nothing done different than any other knife. What I saw looked more like weird shrinkage!
 
I've used it several times since it came out with no problems. I grind the tang side of the scales to 120, knife tang to 120, and GFlex epoxy pretty much like Laurence. The difference is I've used both pins and Corbys for mechanical attachment.

I still have the first one I made in the house as it was a gift for the wife and it looks fine. Did your client store it in a hot place? Like maybe the trunk of his car for long periods of time.
 
I was wondering if it was left somewhere with a lot of heat. He grabbed it out of the back of his car. He might keep it there for show & tell. I think it is a show piece for him. He probably doesn't use best practices with some of his stuff???

Good possibility. I'll have to ask him next time.
 
Heat will definitely shrink Kirinite. I am doing a knife for Raj right now and while rough shaping the bolsters/scales I let the 416 bolsters get pretty warm. They did not get hot enough to burn the G/flex but they were definitely warm. When I came off the flat platen at 120 grit I should have had a nice smooth transition between bolster and scale, instead I had about .007" drop off from the bolster to the Kirinite. I went back to the flat platen, kept everything cool and got a nice transition.

Bob
 
I found that the abuse of heat caused it to shrink when working it. I also caught it before it became a problem. I tell my clients that request it not to store it in the trunk of their cars or anywhere that heat can effect it before they get it. I also include that info on the delivery form they sign.
 
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