Kris Restoration...

Rick · 19th May 2005, 04:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spunjer

rick,
the galgal/gunk is rock solid. are there any solutions you can pour to soften this up?

Is there a lot of it ?

Maybe the thing to do would be to clean and re-heat the tang and try to reset it in the handle in the proper orientation adding some new galgal if needed , the old mastic may still get soft with heat (or it might not).

The problems with pouring stuff into the hole could be many , if you used hot oil you might ruin the hilt for re-mounting by making it too slick .
Any kind of spirits would degrade the finish .

Possibly a narrow straight chisel or chisel sharpened screwdriver could be used to get between the mastic and the wood and gently remove it .
You could also heat the implement .

Bill · 19th May 2005, 04:38 PM

for cleaning the hole of the hilt, try using a long thin screw, lightly using the treads as a file. if you do this holding the hilt hole down, the stuff will just keep falling out, not gathering inside the hilt. I use a 4" eyed, ment go through house siding, & running external wire.

Federico · 19th May 2005, 11:33 PM

Ive done the heat implement thing myself to remove larger chunks of galal. Usually a screwdriver or cheap knife heated hot on a torch (not hot enough to scorch the wood just hot enough to make the pitch run) that I use to attract and rub off the galal. You arent trying to cut into the wood, just soften and wipe out the galal. The galal should run at a lower temp than the wood will burn, so you dont need to over-heat it. You can usually remove 90% of the excess this way without removing wood. After that Ive usually finished cleaning/roughing the area with a sharp chisel. The amount of wood removed at this point should be very very little, as most of the galal should be gone with the hot cleaning. The real purpose of the chisel work is to rough the inside of the puhan so as to create a gripping surface for the pitch to grab a hold of.

19th May 2005, 04:38 PM	#2
Bill Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Chicago area Posts: 327	for cleaning the hole of the hilt, try using a long thin screw, lightly using the treads as a file. if you do this holding the hilt hole down, the stuff will just keep falling out, not gathering inside the hilt. I use a 4" eyed, ment go through house siding, & running external wire.

19th May 2005, 11:33 PM	#3
Federico Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Minneapolis, MN, USA Posts: 312	Ive done the heat implement thing myself to remove larger chunks of galal. Usually a screwdriver or cheap knife heated hot on a torch (not hot enough to scorch the wood just hot enough to make the pitch run) that I use to attract and rub off the galal. You arent trying to cut into the wood, just soften and wipe out the galal. The galal should run at a lower temp than the wood will burn, so you dont need to over-heat it. You can usually remove 90% of the excess this way without removing wood. After that Ive usually finished cleaning/roughing the area with a sharp chisel. The amount of wood removed at this point should be very very little, as most of the galal should be gone with the hot cleaning. The real purpose of the chisel work is to rough the inside of the puhan so as to create a gripping surface for the pitch to grab a hold of.