Color of "natural micarta"?

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vanadium

vanadium

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Apr 5, 2003
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I'm considering an Inkosi in "natural micarta" but wondering what the actual color is. Looking on the web, different pictures show vastly different colors/tones, even when adjusting to equalize the tone of the titanium.

What is the actual color? Is it a rich/saturated hue, or a pale/greyish tone? Is it lighter or darker then the titanium? Or is the "natural micarta" coming out of CRK actually inconsistent?

Thanks.

natural.jpg
 
No matter the color, trust me on this, it will darken significantly. That's half the fun of bonding with your knife though... hope that helps
 
Funny you just started this thread as I just took a couple new pics of my Natural Micarta Inkosi. I don't know if the material coming out of CRK is inconsistent, but can say for sure that my knife looks different from time to time both in hand and in pics depending on the light. I've also noticed that my Micarta has darkened a bit since I first got the knife, but this is "natural" for Micarta in general. Natural is probably more prone to this change than other finishes, especially the more "polished" varieties. The good news is that Micarta cleans up very easily with hand soap, warm water, and a medium nail or face brush. I've got a red linen Micarta Hinderer MP1 that I wash fairly frequently to maintain the variegated, almost bleached out look of the scale.

My Inkosi seemed darker in hand on the Micarta's faces with very light edges when I just got it out, but looks more washed out overall in today's pics. My take on the color of mine would be darkish tan or light brown with a hint of red, but I can turn it a little in the light and it looks redder or tanner depending on the angle.

Today's pics--

3fr7R2h.jpg


AAM7yh8.jpg


When it was new--

kg75m1v.jpg


uPW21iC.jpg


And here's a poorly lit pic where it looks very tan/light brown--

uQyEeSI.jpg
 
I only have one in natural micarta. But the 6 I've got in black micarta are consistent in color with slight variations in the pattern. As already stated, the color will change with use depending on how oily your hands are as well as to how much you sweat.
 
The problem with color is the color will change with the light used to take the picture and again with how or if your monitor is calibrated and what color gammut it supports. There's a reason color accurate monitors are so blooming expensive ☺️
 
GermanyChris said:
The problem with color is the color will change with the light used to take the picture and again with how or if your monitor is calibrated and what color gammut it supports. There's a reason color accurate monitors are so blooming expensive ☺️
Click to expand...

Exactly this! Therefore comparing pictures from forums, online stores, Facebook, Instagram & co. do not mean that much. User reports about darkening over time and usage can help to adjust expectations of new owners. But talking about whether it is more red or more brown is not very helpful, as it depends upon too many parameters, as Chris mentioned.

Just a radical example:

25, CGG, Ladder, 05

25, CGG, Ladder, 06
 
James Longstreet said:
Therefore comparing pictures from forums, online stores, Facebook, Instagram & co. do not mean that much
Click to expand...

Yup, this is why I'm asking for words instead. Posting a giant photo with the color temperature set to a radically wrong value is mildly entertaining, but doesn't demonstrate anything relevant to my question, given that the 3 photos I posted have been equalized for the hue and tone of the titanium and were obviously professionally shot with proper white balance under very similar lighting conditions (two of them in identical conditions). Even an average uncalibrated consumer display will give a good perceptual idea of the relationship between the tone of the titanium and the tone of the inlay, which appears to be different in every one of these pictures.

Doing some more research in other threads, it seems like the CRK micarta really is just very inconsistent, even right out of the box. The one thing you can count on is it getting darker.
 
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From what I've seen it is more pale/light brownish.
It has a "rough" surface.
I have not seen used yet in real live.

As for the colors, it was hard for me to believe, that the micarta on the Sebenza's and the GB where made of the same block.
hope this helps
 
The problem with color is it's supposed robber colour :)

Just a joke from European English person.

All honesty if I clean my Sebenza with dishwashing soap and hot water the colour of the Ti and micarta are significant lighter. With use it darkens significantly. My Insingo Inkosi's micarta almost looks like deep brown rich wood. That is how dark it can get.

Wash it and it looks like a light brown similar to tan leather.
 
Thin-Slice said:
Depending on the light it might even be confused for the red linen micarta as well.
Click to expand...
Back when I first got mine and posted pics another member questioned my assertion that it was natural, saying, maybe tongue-in-cheek, that the Micarta must be red.

marthinus said:
The problem with color is it's supposed robber colour :)

Just a joke from European English person.

All honesty if I clean my Sebenza with dishwashing soap and hot water the colour of the Ti and micarta are significant lighter. With use it darkens significantly. My Insingo Inkosi's micarta almost looks like deep brown rich wood. That is how dark it can get.

Wash it and it looks like a light brown similar to tan leather.
Click to expand...

I think I'll give mine a wash later and see if the difference is anywhere near as profound as the change I noted earlier in my MP1's red linen, though my natural hasn't darkened all that much so far.

Did your spell-check have it's way with your joke, marthinus? Auto-correct is my enema! o_O
 
ChazzyP said:
Back when I first got mine and posted pics another member questioned my assertion that it was natural, saying, maybe tongue-in-cheek, that the Micarta must be red.



I think I'll give mine a wash later and see if the difference is anywhere near as profound as the change I noted earlier in my MP1's red linen, though my natural hasn't darkened all that much so far.

Did your spell-check have it's way with your joke, marthinus? Auto-correct is my enema! o_O
Click to expand...

Autocorrect really destroyed that joke for me.

Mine got the darkest on a camping trip when I was working with some meat that had plenty of fat. After it dried it remained that dark. Washed it and looked brand new.
 
I wrote to CRK with this question and got a response. Basically, there is variation. Here's the reply in full:

All of those photos from KnivesShipFree depict the coloring of that exact
micarta.
KnivesShipFree photographs each and every knife that they sell and when you
find one whose picture you like I recommend purchasing it as it will be the
exact one in the photo.
Our micarta is made from compressed canvas sheets and while the entire
sheet is called "Natural" and is a brown color the shade varies throughout
the sheet as we we cut through those canvas layers.
Some of the differences will also be from the photograph itself and the
lighting used.
Please let me know if there is anything else that I can help you with.
Have a great day.
*Angela
​
KnivesShipFree definitely doesn't photograph every knife though. Looks like they only do that for damascus and wood. So I just called them too, and they told me that there's indeed a lot of product variation in natural micarta from CRK.

So, there's our answer.
 
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vanadium said:
I wrote to CRK with this question and got a response. Basically, there is variation. Here's the reply in full:

All of those photos from KnivesShipFree depict the coloring of that exact
micarta.
KnivesShipFree photographs each and every knife that they sell and when you
find one whose picture you like I recommend purchasing it as it will be the
exact one in the photo.
Our micarta is made from compressed canvas sheets and while the entire
sheet is called "Natural" and is a brown color the shade varies throughout
the sheet as we we cut through those canvas layers.
Some of the differences will also be from the photograph itself and the
lighting used.
Please let me know if there is anything else that I can help you with.
Have a great day.
*Angela
​
KnivesShipFree definitely doesn't photograph every knife though. Looks like they only do that for damascus and wood. So I just called them too, and they told me that there's indeed a lot of product variation in natural micarta from CRK.

So, there's our answer.
Click to expand...

"Asked and answered", then.

So, will you roll the dice and order one?
 
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