Canvas and linen micarta

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Oct 20, 2000
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Can someone give me the lowdown on these two materials. I understand that they are used extensively for knife handles.

From the scientific perspective, what are the advantages of these materials? Are they easy to make? What about the cost of producing the linen and canvas micarta?

Is micarta used to a great advantage for other purposes as well?
 
I Personally have found that canvas Micarta seems to absorb moisture which I do not like. Linen Micarta, I never had a problem with its a good handle material. When it comes down to it though Ill take G10 or 11(its tougher but more expensive variant) over the Micarta any day.
 
Canvas micarta will not absorb moisture if it is treated. The only knife I have used with canvas micarta is the CRK Green Beret, and it was not treated, so it absorbed moisture, but it quickly evaporated. It doesn't affect the performance of the handle at all.

Canvas micarta is tough stuff! I am making some handles for a knife, and I've gone through three bandsaw blades and I haven't even made two cuts! :eek:

They are old, POS blades, but still! :eek:
 
Micarta is a laminate of resin and layers of base material, commonmy fabric. Bead blasted canvas micarta offers a grippier surface than other micartas, while linned will polish to a shinier surface. Paper micarta polishes very fine. White paper micarta can actually be scrimmed! Nice stuff.

Micarta is called the steel of plastics because ti is crazy tough. Anything you do to damage the micarta will be damaging the rest of your knife, for most intents and purposes. I love the look of micarta, as it shows a grain. Beautiful and tough, a great material. Micarta is an old product, used as an electrical insulator, IIRC.

G-10 is a glass/epoxy laminate. It is stronger than Micarta, and will absorb fewer chemicals. Personally I find G-10 to have little personality on its own.

I think for most users, Micarta is a perfect material. It takes an extreme licking, looks great, and can easily be touched up by a maker after years of use/abuse.
 
I like the micarta's also as I figure it is plenty tough enough for anything I will be using a knife for. The ability of the micarta to take a wood grained appearance is really neat. The black linen micarta's have a great appearance when polished out and do indeed appear to be wood. It can then be lightly blasted and you end up with the best of both worlds; a wood grained appearance and a grippy surface.
 
Micarta really is great stuff but the only time I really use it is for fillet knives.GE used it quite a while for insulation before makers caught on. Probably an enterprizing employee.
 
Canvas and Linen Micarta are basically the same thing except that canvas Micarta is made with a heavier weave of cotton (linen is not used to make Linen Micarta).

Canvas Micarta has a higher tensil strength and better impact resistance; therefore it is the tougher of the two materials. Linen Micarta, because of its finer weaved material, can take a much higher polish.

The small amount of moisture that can be absorbed by the fibers that end up protruding from the resin will evaporate quickly. This can be solved by treating the Micarta with a sealer.

Micarta is my favorite synthetic. It has character. It comes in some outstanding colours and colour combinations and can end up with a grain that looks almost like wood. Wonderful stuff, and tough enough for anything I am going to use a knife for.
 
Just to clarify,

Mircata, be it paper, linen, canvas, etc
and G7-G14 (i think)
Are all made from various "sandwich" materials that are then impregnated with phenolic resin.

Do a google search for "phenolic resin" if you really want to lowdown.

The possibilities are endless really..somewhere, I think Mcmaster, sells phenolic casting kits, so really you could make whatever you wanted. I've oftenwondered what sawdust and phenolic would look like. The downside is that the resin is nasty stuff and expensive to boot.

Just though I'd throw in my .02USD

Dan
 
L, funny you mentioned that. A buddy and I considered that same thing with the sawdust. He was telling me about having so much sawdust so we got to talking about casting fillet knife handles and seeing where it would lead.
 
John, you should try it!! I think it would look really cool if you mixed like walnut and a lighter wood's dust together. Sortof a variation on rag mircata, which BTW is not hard to make, in fact, none of it is. The problem, besides the cost, and the smell, and the health hazards, is that no-one is going to sell you any less than say 10 gallons of resin.

Oh well, keep on dreamin' I guess...

Dan
 
Thanx to all who supplied information on micarta. Ordered my first custom a few weeks ago with canvas micarta scales, great to read that the material is so durable. From a strictly aesthetic point of view it has lots of character, when you add it's functional capabilities, seems to make a super material.
 
Two short questions I ommited in my previous thread...What type of sealer is used on canvas micarta? Will the sealer darken, lighten or have no effect in regard to color change of the material?
 
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