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With help from these boards I was able to reattach the broken-off wing of this wooden owl pendant using wood glue and some clamping power. However, I'm not sure I completely trust this little guy to never break again (it's old with considerable wear and may snap again eventually) and was wondering if there's anything I could do to reinforce or protect this little guy so he doesn't break again easily? Would something like brushed on epoxy resin do the trick? The back is curved bare wood if that helps. Thanks!

EDIT: I'm not looking merely to reinforce the seam where the wing was joined back to the body, I'm looking to reinforce the ENTIRE pendant so that none of its fragile parts break again. Was hoping for some straightforward solutions, a friend suggested permanently attaching it to a metal backing but that sounded like a lot of work. The pendant itself is 2mm thick and you can kinda tell from the picture the face is convex extruding while the back is concave domed so the surfaces are curved, if that helps any.

My little owl pendant with the fixed wing

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  • Well first off, if you did the glueing job correctly the glue line should be stronger than the wood around it. You missed your chance at the easiest reinforcement — when you had both pieces separate you could have drilled into each piece to epoxy in a strengthening dowel (or rods/pins since epoxy is good at bonding dissimilar materials).
    – Graphus
    Jun 30, 2021 at 13:06
  • It's now not as easy to strengthen this, not as easy to do (possibly requiring tools or skills you don't have), and/or less easy to achieve either an invisible or visually pleasing result. "Would something like brushed on epoxy resin do the trick?" If brushed on thinly that'll do essentially zero to strengthen this. Applied more thickly (thick enough to possibly work) you'll change, possibly ruin, the feel and aesthetics.
    – Graphus
    Jun 30, 2021 at 13:14
  • If there is still a hairline crack then super-thin cyanoacrylate carefully wicked into that void will help a little. But short of some surgery you've done what you can.
    – user5572
    Jun 30, 2021 at 16:34
  • Hey folks thanks for the insight, this pendant is pretty thin at about 2mm thick so I really don't think drilling or adding dowels would have been plausible unless I was using some specialty hobbyist tools or something. I'm not concerned about the seam where the parts were joined, it's that given how fragile this pendant is I'm just worried that overall ANY part of it could break again. A friend suggested maybe shaping a metal backing to permanently attach it to, but it sounded like too much work, was hoping you all might have more straightforward solutions.
    – user1930581
    Jun 30, 2021 at 18:32
  • "about 2mm thick so I really don't think drilling or adding dowels would have been plausible" I'd have reinforced with metal pins (pieces of stout paperclip, epoxied into oversized holes so they couldn't interfere with part alignment). "unless I was using some specialty hobbyist tools or something" Yup, the above and any current fixes I thought of first would require a Dremel-type mini drill, or a very small hand drill (plus the tiny bits of course).
    – Graphus
    Jul 1, 2021 at 6:03

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I didn't read all the comments to your post, however, I was thinking just putting a backing on it. even something as simple as black construction paper glued to the whole thing then use a scalpel or exacto knife to follow and cut out the shape after the glue has set. You could try a piece of fabric instead but I think the paper would probably do it, at the very least, it should reduce the chances of losing a piece should it break again.

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