So my first auction saw is in my shop for repairs, H. M. Meier, 26 3/8, 6 point, CC. The handle is nice and in good shape except for a thin crack. The blade was rusted badly over most all it's surface. Took the handle off and started cleaning the blade. Over half the finish was off the handle so I have sanded off most of the remainder. The handle crack has me a little baffled. I have read articles and posts on repairing such cracks but this one is a little more complicated. The crack is not all the way through the handle and the handle feels fairly solid even with the crack. Rather than trying to describe it I uploaded a picture of each side to Flicker:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16891057@N05/?saved=1
I was using the wedge the handle is on to try & spread the crack a little so I could get glue in it. The crack does not seem to want to open up and I am not sure it is a good idea to use more force? I was thinking about watering down some glue to get it into the crack or just soaking WATCO "Teak Oil" finish into it. The Teak Oil is a thinner version of regular WATCO which one of the "old timers" at Highland Woodworking suggested might be better about soaking into hard woods, like the purpleheart I have been making planes with. WATCO claims to soak into wood & harden as opposed to just sitting on the surface.
If the handle was in pieces, like the one in the post below or had a larger crack that could be spread apart I would have a good idea what to do. I tapped it down the wedge fairly firmly with a dead blow hammer and tried to sprad it by hand but could not get any significant change in the cracks width. Any other ideas? If not I am thinking about soaking the WATCO into it and leaving it alone unless it gets worse.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?171446-Rehab-of-a-D-23-handle&highlight=glue+for+cracks