Kintsugi scales

[Nobody Special]

Good evening, I had an idea that's maybe more of a question, or vice versa; I'm not sure which. My wife collects coffee mugs, and has a slew of fancy mugs with ceramic horse appliques, krakens, sea turtles, you name it, and my cat broke a favorite (abstract dragon on a black background) whilst on a parkour rampage. With kids and cats, we go through a few, so I've been gradually getting more serious about kintsugi to repair them.

If you haven't seen kintsugi, it's a Japanese lacquer technique for repairing ceramics - you file or sand the edges gently, fill with resin, and cover the surface layer with powdered metal, gold being the favorite. They're gorgeous and a rabbit hole well worth going down. Go ahead and Google it, I'll wait.

Wasn't that worth it? It crossed my mind though that the technique would look amazing in knife scales, if you could figure out how to incorporate it. I'm not sure how you would want to go about it. You could make resin scales, like homemade micarta, and then join them but the effect would be less random, and I worry a bit about the integrity. The other thought I had was to make kintsugi pieces, then embed them in a homemade resin or micarta scales. Any thoughts? There's a bit online, but it seems to be mostly focused on filling cracks in wood.

[Frosty]

That was worth checking out and good for a number of thought experiments first look, thank you. 

So, thought experiment #1. Make a set of slightly oversized scales in the color of your choice. Freeze it HARD probably requiring a cryogenic bath, say dry ice and alcohol. Remove it from the bath and break it up. I'd try a couple different ways to see how I like the breaks, say once from the outside with a big hammer and once, driving a wedge into the space for the tang.

Then go all kintsugi on it. Hmmmm?

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[Nobody Special]

This is getting more interesting all the time. So, the traditional lacquer is urushi, which is made from the Chinese lacquer plant, a type of sumac, with the sap containing high levels of urushiol - aka the stuff that makes you itchy in poison oak, sumac, etc. It's also difficult to prepare and expensive (the tree takes ten years to grow and you get 1/5 of a liter of sap), so most modern hobbiests replace it with all sorts of resins, epoxies, and glues. Gorilla Glue got a lot of mentions, as did J.B. Weld - and unless you're using real gold/silver/platinum, it's mostly painted with standard paint powders.

This has suddenly gone from looking interesting and potentially expensive to very, very doable and cheap. I thought about breaking the scales themselves, and we're definitely trying that, but I think I also want to see if I can at least partially embed some of it in a clear resin to cut down wear, and also because I just want to see how it looks. Oh yeah, and on top of everything else? There's some neat effects where they drill holes and fill them with resin and powders ranging from the usual metal powders to crushed gemstones like opal or lapis.

[Frosty]

How about this? Cast your scale blanks from a relatively transparent epoxy resin with just a light tint of pigment say green. Once set and cured break it up. Now mix your epoxy resin with say gold pigment as can be found at good art supplies and glue the pieces back together with it.

Once cured, set and finished I'm envisioning a transparent green hilt with 3D gold sheets and fracture shaped gold running through it. 

I'd check the art supply for casting resins, they work much better for casting than say adhesive or fiberglassing resins. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[BillyBones]

I am following this intently. My mom has a couple vases made like that. They are black and have paintings of women on them with gold cracks. Quite nice. My grandmother bought them back in the 50's when my grandfather was station i think in the Philippines. 

A bit off subject but kind of funny, my mom also has a set of nesting tables they got around the same time. They are intricately carved antique rosewood. She asked if i would like to have them. I said yes of course. Then she said "I figure you could cut them up and use them for something else." In my oh so humble opinion it would be sacrilege to do more than polish them.  

[Frosty]

Mind posting a pic of the vases I'd like a look, please?

Sounds like your Mom is giving you permission to do what you wish with the tables so you won't feel badly if you want to do something else with them. My Grandmother did that.

Frosty The Lucky.

[BillyBones]

Next time i am over there i will try and remember to get one.

They have some of the coolest stuff from when my mom was over there. 

She has a painting of her and my aunt that was done while on the ship enroute to the Philippines, i joke with her telling her that when i inherit that i will use it for target practice. My mom may have been 6 or 8 years old when it was painted and no i would never use it for target practice.  

[Frosty]

Good, we can remain friends. 

Of course that sparked the voices to start suggesting things to use. One was kinda cool, dart gun darts with the suction cups replaced with foam rubber smoochy lips that'd leave a faint smudge like the pics got kissed. 

Of course there's blowing kisses.

Frosty The Lucky.