Have an old favorite wooden cane that's taken a slowly growing vertical crack in the wood;

old crook-neck style, some undeterminible hard wood; has been in various phases of hard use/easy use/ignored for long periods. Can't find one close enough like it to replace it.

Crack runs from about half-way down the shaft to just beginning to ascend into the lower crook neck, on the rt hand thumb plane.

Widest part of crack is maybe 4mm, thinning both directions to about 1mm.

Planned repair is to drill tiny hole at each end of the current split, fill with some syringe-style applicator reaching down into crack, and clamping for setting up period.

Purpose is not 'weight bearing' but rather 'hold the wood shaft together'.

I don't think Elmers style is thin enough to get into bottom of crack.

Suggestions?

There are very thin super glues out there, like BSI Insta-Cure ( https://bsi-inc.com/hobby/insta_cure.html ). It's about as viscous as water.

BSI Insta-Cure is an excellent super glue, but I don't know whether that's actually the right type of adhesive for what you're talking about.

You can also add water to normal water-based wood glue (like Titebond) to thin it out some, although you don't want to add too much (Titebond suggests up to 5% water) or the bond weakens.

I've used a few brands of CA (super glue) for woodworking. Both thin and medium viscosity. The thin should work fine for what you are looking to do. You can use an accelerator if you like, or not. I don't believe it would matter as long as you set the cane aside and let it rest.

Hot Stuff https://www.amazon.com/Stuff-T...d=1617491739&sr=8-11

Starbond
https://www.amazon.com/Starbon...d=1617492058&sr=8-22

You can also check your hardware store, craft store, Home D. or Lowes. Just look for the thin stuff. Rockler woodworking has a brand as well. Most woodworking stores carry it as well as the accelerator spray.

Applying: Wear gloves. Cut a 1-inch strip of paper towel the length of the sheet. Fold and double it over until it is about 1" by 2" long. Apply a few drops of glue and rub it into the crack. repeat a few times. Note I often use CA to finish wooden pen bodies. Thought I'll use 10 or more coats and may sand with 800 or 1000 grit after drying if needed. I know you are looking just to fill the crack. You may build up a little layer and thus a shiny spot on the cane. You can try to lightly sand the spot or sand and refinish the whole cane once you fix that area. I do not recommend using CA to refinish the whole thing, though you could. It would not be fun!

Practice on an old piece of wood. Hope this is of help. You can find a lot of good info on using CA via youtube.

I would suggest to spread the crack open and use a piece of paper saturated with epoxy to completely fill the crack. Then clamp the crack closed and wipe the exterior down with a paper towel wetted slightly with acetone. Note this may require multiple stages of wiping with multiple paper towels but the goal is to get the exterior free of epoxy without having any acetone migrate into the crack. Once that epoxy has cured you have a crack that isn't even slightly visible and won't ever re-open.

I have filled cracks in stocks and wood by (if possible) opening the crack as much as possible. Squirt glue in/on crack and then take a small flexible plastic tube, placing it flat on the glue. Blow into the tube and use the pressure to distribute the glue deeply into the crack. Clamp and wipe off excess glue. I've done this with wood glue, epoxy and super glue.

I use it all the time in my cabinet shop if you use the activator it will set up in about 2 seconds I kid you not. don't get it on you as it will bond your fingers together.
https://www.fastcap.com/produc...adhesive-standard-rt

https://www.fastcap.com/produc...-rt#!prettyPhoto/11/

If you need to fill the cracks, you might want to look up how to do it with thin CA (superglue) and baking soda. God Bless !!!

Here's a method I've used on filling a longer wood crack completely. I taped over the crack so only the ends of the crack are bare. On one end of crack I dripped a bunch of glue to cover the open end of crack. Using an air hose, I blow air "across" (not into) the other open end of the crack. You DONT need high pressure air, just a constant stream across the open end of the crack. This causes a lowered pressure inside the crack at the air hose end (Bernoulli's principle), which draws the glue through the tape sealed crack. The trick is to continue dripping enough glue on other end of crack to completely fill the crack.

To see this effect in real life, blow "across" the top of a straw in cup of water, it'll suck water up through the straw. Obviously, if you blow "into a straw, it'll bubble out the bottom, that's why you have to blow "across" the open end of the straw, or in this case, open end of crack in wood. This method turns the long crack into the straw and instead of water, you're using glue and letting the vacuum suck the glue inside.. The nice thing is that because it is vacuumed through the crack, no air pockets are left inside.

Just be aware though that some of the glue will come misting out of open end area and get on whatever is in the direction of the air stream. Also you will probably need to use a thinner glue for this trick.

The funny origins of "my" learning this trick is that I tried putting a cup holder on the side of my motorcycle and putting a Starbucks iced coffee in it when I was out riding. The vacuum caused by the wind blowing across the straw sucked out all my coffee in a mist and deposited the mist all over the back of my motorcycle.

I also use this air-flow-causes-vacuum-on-other-side trick to draw liquid flux completely under BGA circuit board chips when I'm re-working circuit boards at work!

Thin CA glue. Spread the crack gently and use a small suction cup to work the glue into the crack Be prepared to sand a bit.

If you aren’t concerned about weight bearing, Titebond and some surgical tube and/or clamps should do it.

I don’t think you need to drill out the ends on wood as long as you get a decent amount of glue in there.

Thanks one and all for suggestions and insights into Project Management. Will be moving forward with Plan A pending trip to hardware supply.

Before you go injecting anything into that crack you'd be well-advised to see if you can actually clamp it back closed. If you can't, then putting glue in there probably won't accomplish anything meaningful.

Secondly: There's a reason it cracked. Even if you do manage to glue that crack shut, the wood may find another route to relieving the stresses that resulted in that crack.

You're better off using an epoxy made for wood and clamping it together. Epoxy will have more strength than wood glue.

Sounds like you need the glue to act as a filler as much as an adhesive, and perhaps it should be flexible to bend with the cane . I don't feel like CA works well in these applications. I would go with a sandable, stainable, flexible epoxy for wood.

When turning wood on a lathe I've had cracks develop. CA glue (super glue) works pretty well on smaller cracks in "green" wood. The check you are describing would probably best be filled with an epoxy. You could even find an epoxy kit that you could mix a dye into or another pigment to make the crack "interesting". Conversely you could blend the color to match the wood as well.