Anyone Else Prefer Matte Handles?? ** Fiddleback Bushcrafter Transformation**

[LightGuy]

I have never been fond of polished handles, and I had heard it's not too hard to give them a nice grippy matte finished with different levels of 3M scour pads. So, I went out this past weekend and bought a few different grits, taped up the blade nicely, and gave it a shot. A few hours of work later, and I am happy as a clam!

I now have a nice grippy Fiddleback Bushcrafter dry or wet (especially wet), and it just feels better in the hand.

I tried to take a few before/after shots, but with this type of micarta it was a little difficult to truly capture the difference with a camera. In person, it looks and feels much different and is a huge improvement in my opinion.

For anyone who is like me and prefers matte over high polish - what are you waiting for??


The 'Before' Shots (Polished)

(apparently a little snafu with the grinder - I was able to smooth it out for the most part)

The 'After' Shots (Matte)

Comparison of the fix on the butt of the knife (turned out pretty well if I do say so myself )

 

[schmittie]

I'm with ya buddy. I like em grippy too! I took sandpaper to mine to get the polish off as well.

 

[CapitalizedLiving]

Matte is definitely best. When I bought Bark Rivers I always got the matte handled versions, they handled much better and personally I think they look better too!

 

[RobKevlar]

Can you bead blast the handle and get the same result?

 

[Lou Castle]

Looks good, especially the clean up of the "oops" on the butt of the knife. What belt (grit) did you end up with to fix the "oops?"

Also, what grit of scour pads did you start and end with on the grip "de-shining?"

 

[Mistwalker]

Can you bead blast the handle and get the same result?

Yes, pretty much. And more texture too. I have a friend here that makes knives and he bead blasts the handles of all of his "tactical" knives and some of his other ones.

 

[schmittie]

Looks good, especially the clean up of the "oops" on the butt of the knife. What belt (grit) did you end up with to fix the "oops?"

I'm interested as well. I have noticed the same on the butt end of my BF.

 

[LightGuy]

Looks good, especially the clean up of the "oops" on the butt of the knife. What belt (grit) did you end up with to fix the "oops?"

Also, what grit of scour pads did you start and end with on the grip "de-shining?"

Sure - I used 150 grit sandpaper folded a couple of times (to make it stiff) to fix the "oops". After I got it to where I wanted it, then I used the 3M pads to matte the handle as well as finish the butt of the knife.

To put the matte finish on, I started with the #2 pad (very coarse - dark gray color) over the entire handle a few times, rinsing several times under hot water to free wax and debris. Then, I finished with the #0 pads (semi-fine - dark green color) over the handle a couple more times (lightly) to put on a consistent looking/feeling finish.

Then, I put tape down on the micarta on both sides of the spine, and cleaned up the spine with very straight strokes to give it back it's stock brushed finish, and get rid of any swirls.

It worked great, and didn't take all that long. I'd say the butt fix took me about 90 minutes, and the matte handle job took me about 30. It was well worth the time, and now it feels even more like it's "mine".

 

[Lou Castle]

Thanks for the info the grits. I used some Norton "Sandpaper Replacement" but it was too fine. Someone suggested applying bees wax to the grip to increase the "grippiness." That worked OK, but it was temporary. It had to be renewed every day that the knife was used, and it picked up dirt from my hands that was left a very ugly residue. I also didn't like the feel of the wax on my hand.

 

[schmittie]

The best grippy micarta handle I ever had was on the Hunter I had. It may have been Shadtree's burlap phenolic. The finish was very different from what is in my Bushfinger. It wasn't polished or very slick to the touch. In fact, it had some voids in the surface layer here and there. When that handle got wet or bloody, it stuck like glue! I loved that knife. I can still kick myself for parting with that one. But then again, I've yet to sell a knife I didn't later regret.

 

[Fiddleback]

Cool. That snafu looks terrible though. I'm quite embarassed about it. The point of doing that is just to break the point of the handle there a bit so it doesn't dig into the hand.

 

[dcycleman]

I have never been fond of polished handles, and I had heard it's not too hard to give them a nice grippy matte finished with different levels of 3M scour pads. So, I went out this past weekend and bought a few different grits, taped up the blade nicely, and gave it a shot. A few hours of work later, and I am happy as a clam!

I now have a nice grippy Fiddleback Bushcrafter dry or wet (especially wet), and it just feels better in the hand.

I tried to take a few before/after shots, but with this type of micarta it was a little difficult to truly capture the difference with a camera. In person, it looks and feels much different and is a huge improvement in my opinion.

For anyone who is like me and prefers matte over high polish - what are you waiting for??


The 'Before' Shots (Polished)

(apparently a little snafu with the grinder - I was able to smooth it out for the most part)

The 'After' Shots (Matte)

Comparison of the fix on the butt of the knife (turned out pretty well if I do say so myself )

Man, that handle combo is sweet

 

[LightGuy]

Cool. That snafu looks terrible though. I'm quite embarassed about it. The point of doing that is just to break the point of the handle there a bit so it doesn't dig into the hand.

Please don't be embarassed about it! In the grand scheme of an awesome blade, it was a tiny flaw. I was pretty proud of my little fix job, so I had to crop in close to be able to see the before and after. It most definitely was not this noticeable in person.

This knife is amazing in every way that counts, and you have to love a knife that has some of these tiny flaws because you know it wasn't made on a machine. These are truly handmade knives, and those things will happen from time to time. I actually like that I was able to do the little fix and matte the handle. I was able to spend a little time making it "mine".

This knife will make an awesome companion to my Fiddleback Camp knife (still blown away by this blade) for a long time to come.

 

[LightGuy]

Man, that handle combo is sweet

Thanks - I love it. My Fiddleback camp knife has the same combo - black/orange liners with natural handle, but the micara on that one is shadetree burlap instead of canvas like this one. One of my favorite combos.

Now if Andy would just make another Kephart with natural G10 over nat can like Mistwalkers - and I could be fast enough to pick it up - all would be right with the world...

(BTW - you can delete the pics out of your quote to reduce the size of the thread and repeated pics)

 

[Mistwalker]

Please don't be embarassed about it! In the grand scheme of an awesome blade, it was a tiny flaw. I was pretty proud of my little fix job, so I had to crop in close to be able to see the before and after. It most definitely was not this noticeable in person.

This knife is amazing in every way that counts, and you have to love a knife that has some of these tiny flaws because you know it wasn't made on a machine. These are truly handmade knives, and those things will happen from time to time. I actually like that I was able to do the little fix and matte the handle. I was able to spend a little time making it "mine".

This knife will make an awesome companion to my Fiddleback Camp knife (still blown away by this blade) for a long time to come.

I'm the same way. I've only ever found small imperfections, and it took me a while to find one on my Kephart...and it's barely there and very hard to notice except in close up photos. But I look for them just because I want to see the little things that make it obvious it was crafted by hand and not duplicated on a machine.

 

[grafton]

Looks good and should help keep the quality control folks on their toes....Ha Ha.

 

[TooQuiet]

I want to see the little things that make it obvious it was crafted by hand and not duplicated on a machine.

I feel this way too. They are not flaws, but personal character marks. They make each of Andy's knives custom, not stamped out copies!!