How to fill Camel Bone scales ?

[Legend]

Hello All ,
Just thought I would put this problem on the Buck forum . I have a nice set of Camel Bone scales which I hope to rescale a Buck 110 with , I am adding 1mm thick liners before fixing the scales . The problem is on the back of the camel bone scales , they are not perfectly flat but have some concave recesses which are a little too big to fill with two part epoxy , so has anyone any ideas of a cheaper way of filling the recess ? I have thought about exterior ready mix putty ??
thanks for any help with this .

[ea42]

I've never had to fill those recesses as they're usually hidden by the bolsters. Will they be visible? If the bone is thicker than the bolsters can you sand the back down to eliminate the recesses or at least shrink them?

Eric

[dlr110]

I'm not entirely sure, but could you fill the concave area with some type of putty that could be sanded? Is there not enough area that will make contact with the liner to glue and that the pins will hold? Just some thoughts.

[Legend]

Hello both Eric and David , thanks for your replies , and my answer is kind of yes to both of you , I will be sanding th e back down slightly thus reducing the area that needs filling and there should be enough flat area to adhere to the liners , and I will use a little putty filler for the rest and seal that with a thin layer of epoxy before fixing to the scales to the handle . Hopefully that will make a good enough job of it .
Thanks again for your ideas .

[dlr110]

Get back to us after you're finished as to how it went and be sure to include some pictures.
We all love pictures around here.

[herbva]

Hello both Eric and David , thanks for your replies , and my answer is kind of yes to both of you , I will be sanding th e back down slightly thus reducing the area that needs filling and there should be enough flat area to adhere to the liners , and I will use a little putty filler for the rest and seal that with a thin layer of epoxy before fixing to the scales to the handle . Hopefully that will make a good enough job of it .
Thanks again for your ideas .

I always sand the back of new scales on a sheet of sandpaper on a flat surface before use. This gets them pretty flat. Then, final step before pinning the scales is I slather a fairly thick coat of epoxy on the outside of the liners (sanded bright and shiny and cleaned with rubbing alcohol) before I apply the new liners. Push down a little so that the excess epoxy squishes out. This fills in any remaining imperfections and works quite well for me.

[Legend]

Thanks for that tip Herb

[Azretired]

Why can't you fill the space with epoxy? I seen carpenters fill spaces bigger than a fist in a slab of wood to make a coffee Table