Yesterday I applied Abalone to a Lamiglas rod, my first with Abalone, and when I was half way around the rod the Abalone cracked vertically, from butt to tip. I boiled the piece in vinegar for about 20 minutes. I used my side burner on my outdoor grill and although it was boiling it didn't seem like a hard boil. My question is could it have not boiled hard enough or long enough to soften the Abalone? It doesn't look to terrible but it would look better without the vertical crack.

Thanks

Did you cover it when you boiled it? If you got 3/4 around, that tells me that it was soft enough, but you might have just taken too big of a bite when you were bending it to the blank. If it was not soft enough, it would have cracked right out of the gate.

Kevin

I did have it covered but walked away for a moment and when I returned I found that vinegar boils away quickly. It wasn't completely gone but I had to add more.
Thanks Kevin.

And when you added it, it had to come back up to a boil. Did you add time for that to happen? I think thats your answer. It might not have boiled long enough. I normally boil it until the back is pretty much penetrated with vinegar.

Hope this helps .

KK



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/07/2010 09:16PM by kevin knox.

Kevin,
No doubt that added to the problem because I did notice the center of the backing was not saturated or wet from the boiled vinegar and not like the edges that were darker. I put a coat of epoxy on the abalone after removing the calcium build-up and I have to say even with the vertical cracking so noticeable the colors are so brilliant. On my way to work this morning I decided I would take the time to remove the cracked Abalone and try again since I'm not fishing this weekend.
By the way, I was at your seminar at the Rod Building Expo this past February, which I thought was excellent, so I seen first hand it is not that difficult with a little patience.

Thanks for your help.

Could anyone tell me about this vinegar for the abalone, is it to mend the crack abalone? I got one of them bass abalone decals, its like only an inch long, and it has cracked, would that mend the cracked abalone bass?