Cruwear Mule Ordered and Questions RE: Patina

[ricechrispy]

I just ordered a Cruwear mule and I already have plans to make some maroon linen micarta scales for it with black micarta pins. I also plan to force a patina on the blade because I think it looks cool and will differentiate it from my two other mules. I also understand that it helps ward off destructive corrosion. I have two questions, though. Is there any reason I shouldn't include the tang in the patina? Also, I plan on applying rubbing the tang down with a tuff-cloth before epoxying the scales to it. Would this affect the scales' ability to adhere to the tang? Any insight will be much appreciated.

[xavierdoc]

I would not patinate the tang and I definitely would NOT wipe the tang with tuff cloth prior to epoxy. Key, clean and finally degrease the surfaces to be glued. I use acetone as the last step before epoxy.

[ricechrispy]

Thanks for the input, xavierdoc. I suspected wiping the tang with tuff cloth prior to epoxy was a bad idea.

[xavierdoc]

Good luck and enjoy; it's very satisfying and the knife will be "yours".

[Koen Z]

I shouldn't use micarta for the pins, but some kind of corrosion resistant metal.

[ricechrispy]

Are you saying that I shouldn't use micarta pins? Why not?

[Koen Z]

The shear strength of micarta is much lower than that of more commonly used materials like stainless steel and brass. Micarta is also more flexible than those materials. When you put pressure on the scales, the glue has to take a lot of the strength. When you pin the knife with brass or stainless steel, the glue is just an extra.

[ricechrispy]

Okay. I wasn't sure if it was because you thought the micarta pins would speed up corrosion. I've done some reading about using micarta pins and actually made my last mule with micarta pins. The opinion a lot of people (at least the ones that posted in the bladeforums thread I read about this topic) have is that a knife handle is only going to be as strong as its weakest link and the weakest link will always be the epoxy. That makes sense to me and I haven't had any problems with my woodcraft mule with micarta pins. Plus, I really prefer the look of the micarta pins over metal pins. Also, it's easier to sand everything evenly with micarta pins. Here's the woodcraft mule with micarta pins: