Canvas Micarta

[dirtvictim]

40 point infraction for sassin the mods.

I honestly thought this was a joke till I saw my email.
I sell a couple hundred knives every year elsewhere, I'm sure my thousands of viewers will be interested to hear of the gestapo like tactics the mods use here when dealing with very minor problems. Seriously 40 points for calling out mods? For 10 points who here thinks I care if the mods close my account?

 

[skillgannon]

So you started a thread calling out the mods? I hope that goes well for you. I can't understand why you keep screwing up this poor guys thread when you have your own started.

To the OP. That's a cool little knife. If you did the problem I would love to hear what worked for you and see the final pics.

 

[Kevin McGovern]

I honestly thought this was a joke till I saw my email.
I sell a couple hundred knives every year elsewhere, I'm sure my thousands of viewers will be interested to hear of the gestapo like tactics the mods use here when dealing with very minor problems. Seriously 40 points for calling out mods? For 10 points who here thinks I care if the mods close my account?

I hope your thousaunds of viewers realize what a toolbag you are.

 

[Kevin McGovern]

And looks like he's gone. Thanks admins. That dude was insufferable.

 

[Laredian]

Wanted to bring this up again, not because of the Micarta discussion...don't worry.

I wanted to give an update on the knife in my first post. I tried out some of the suggestions that were given in this thread. I took the scales down a bit, sanded it again...oiled it up a couple of times, but nothing really helped. The handle material still has this coarse structure where small "voids" would show. Seems to me the handle material I had bought was simply of subpar quality, which is not a problem, the knife was not meant to be sold or given away to anybody.

However, I found another supplier of micarta and tried out some black paper micarta and the results were much better. I made a small EDC knife with the scales. I'm quite proud of the design...I think it's a really handy little tool.
Steel is 100Cr6, handle is black paper micarta with red liners and bronze pins. Blade was hand sanded to a 800 grit satin and then etched in ferric chloride.
Overall length is 16,5cm, bladelength 6,7cm

Let me know what you think and thank you for all the suggestions regarding canvas micarta.

 

[Rhinoknives1]

Looks fine! Nice little stabby lookin knife...
If you want the closed Solid look, use the Paper Micarta, The Linen is a little more open & Canvas the grainest. "Is that a word?" I use to use the Canvas for Hunters & field knives and only sand to 220 grit for a nice grippy feel..

 

[Metalhead0483]

Look'n sharp!

No pun intended.

Honest.

 

[skillgannon]

Wanted to bring this up again, not because of the Micarta discussion...don't worry.

I wanted to give an update on the knife in my first post. I tried out some of the suggestions that were given in this thread. I took the scales down a bit, sanded it again...oiled it up a couple of times, but nothing really helped. The handle material still has this coarse structure where small "voids" would show. Seems to me the handle material I had bought was simply of subpar quality, which is not a problem, the knife was not meant to be sold or given away to anybody.

However, I found another supplier of micarta and tried out some black paper micarta and the results were much better. I made a small EDC knife with the scales. I'm quite proud of the design...I think it's a really handy little tool.
Steel is 100Cr6, handle is black paper micarta with red liners and bronze pins. Blade was hand sanded to a 800 grit satin and then etched in ferric chloride.
Overall length is 16,5cm, bladelength 6,7cm

Let me know what you think and thank you for all the suggestions regarding canvas micarta.

I like it. I might have to make one or two like it for myself .
You were a good sport through that mess.

Idon't know if you have tried linen yet but the stuff that I have used is a lot blacker. I don't really like the black canvas but love the green and natural. They just look "right" somehow.

 

[Randy3000]

Id cut some carpet with it!

 

[Kevin McGovern]

Wanted to bring this up again, not because of the Micarta discussion...don't worry.

I wanted to give an update on the knife in my first post. I tried out some of the suggestions that were given in this thread. I took the scales down a bit, sanded it again...oiled it up a couple of times, but nothing really helped. The handle material still has this coarse structure where small "voids" would show. Seems to me the handle material I had bought was simply of subpar quality, which is not a problem, the knife was not meant to be sold or given away to anybody.

However, I found another supplier of micarta and tried out some black paper micarta and the results were much better. I made a small EDC knife with the scales. I'm quite proud of the design...I think it's a really handy little tool.
Steel is 100Cr6, handle is black paper micarta with red liners and bronze pins. Blade was hand sanded to a 800 grit satin and then etched in ferric chloride.
Overall length is 16,5cm, bladelength 6,7cm

Let me know what you think and thank you for all the suggestions regarding canvas micarta.

Very nice

 

[autogateman]

That looks outsatnding! Nice work brother!

 

[golfer1]

Read this entire thread, so glad you got something out of it. Love the micarta, is that a Xerox machine by the corian counter top or is it formica? LOL

 

[Laredian]

Alright, so to bring this full circle I wanted to share with you two more EDC knives like the one I made with paper micarata handle.

These however are linen micarta:

Same specs as the one with paper micarta. Black linen micarta scales with red liners. This one was hand sanded to 800grit, etched and then sanded again to give it a two tone finish.

This one also has black linen micarta scales with red liners and was hand sanded to 800grit and then etched.

Let me know what you think. Showed those to my father and he thinks they look goofy, I personally am very happy with them. They are not perfect, there is always room for improvement...but for now it's alright I think.

Thanks for looking

Edit: all those are just under 4mm thick at the ricasso. But they are ground very thin and have a decent distal taper to them so they will cut quite well.

 

[Howard1]

Alright, so to bring this full circle I wanted to share with you two more EDC knives like the one I made with paper micarata handle.

These however are linen micarta:

Same specs as the one with paper micarta. Black linen micarta scales with red liners. This one was hand sanded to 800grit, etched and then sanded again to give it a two tone finish.

This one also has black linen micarta scales with red liners and was hand sanded to 800grit and then etched.

Let me know what you think. Showed those to my father and he thinks they look goofy, I personally am very happy with them. They are not perfect, there is always room for improvement...but for now it's alright I think.

Thanks for looking

Edit: all those are just under 4mm thick at the ricasso. But they are ground very thin and have a decent distal taper to them so they will cut quite well.

Nice work. I followed this entire thread to see if an answer to your original question showed up. I have had similar problems trying to get “micarta” to polish. When I buy it it comes as a shiny block with little grain showing. How does the manufacturer achieve that finish. By the time I sand, buff, and polish I get a mixed grey and black finish with heavy grain that looks nothing like larger, unfinished block.

 

[Laredian]

Nice work. I followed this entire thread to see if an answer to your original question showed up. I have had similar problems trying to get “micarta” to polish. When I buy it it comes as a shiny block with little grain showing. How does the manufacturer achieve that finish. By the time I sand, buff, and polish I get a mixed grey and black finish with heavy grain that looks nothing like larger, unfinished block.

I am by no means an expert so take my advice with a grain of salt, but from my experience it depends in part on the quality of the micarta that you get from your supplier. The canvas micarta I tried did not give me the result I was looking for, it also looked quite different from other canvas micarta I had seen even at lower grits.

The paper and linen micarta I got from a different supplier and those looked far better as one can hopefully see in the pictures. What I mean by that is the quality of the material itself. I am aware that canvas, linen and paper micarta all look different in the finished product.

The paper micarta was really nice and easy to polish. (and keep in mind here I do not own a buffer, I just carefully hand sanded to 800grit and then polished it with very fine steel wool and oil. With a buffer the result would have been better probably.)

The linen micarta behaved similarly to the paper micarta but it had just a little more "structure" that the paper micarta.

So in summary:
Canvas micarta: can give an awsome rugged look. If you get a bad piece of micarta however like I did, it won't look good at lower grits and look awful if you try to polish it.
Linen micarta: sort of a middle ground between Canvas and Paper Micarta
Paper micarta: gives a nice closed uniform surface and takes a nice polish.
(These attributes have in part been pointed out by other more experienced members, I just wanted to also give my personal experience after working with the material)

Edit: I did not look for other samples of canvas micarta to try out, so I can not answer from my personal experience how I would finish canvas micarta and get good results, but other people in this thread have given good advice on the subject I think.

 

[Lieblad]

Fwiw, all my linen Micarta is ’antique’ salvage from electrical equipment. It will polish up ok, but never 100% glossy as the individual fiber ends buff differently than surrounding resin. Seen magnified, its reason for dullness is obvious.

 

[DukeHarley]

Looks to me like there was a large gap in the layers during production. My black canvas is much more consistent. I wouldn’t buy from that supplier again. I usually test my materials before glue up. Sand the corners down on it to expose the layers.

 

[Laredian]

Looks to me like there was a large gap in the layers during production. My black canvas is much more consistent. I wouldn’t buy from that supplier again. I usually test my materials before glue up. Sand the corners down on it to expose the layers.

I definitely should have done that. It was not a problem though, since the knife was a test piece anyway. The only annoying thing is that the bad canvas micarta I bought back then was a larger piece. So I have a 30x15cm plate of micarta left, that I'll never use for a handle....I'll probably make some hand sanding sticks or push sticks from it.