Cypress
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2009
- Messages
- 1,742
There has been talk of making micarta around the boards, so I figured I would give it a whirl and post my learning experience.
I used an old pair of Diesel Jeans, as I wanted something "special" for the Spyderco MT17 in K390. For those of you who are unaware, this particular pair of jeans was $250 new
I decided to go with a fiberglass resin instead of epoxy, as I tried an epoxy run and it failed. The first batch had a vein of unsaturated epoxy off center in the block, making it useless. Fiberglass resin is 1/3 the cost of epoxy, so resin it was.
Protip: Don't count on the epoxy to bleed through all layers under clamping force! FULLY saturate ALL layers before clamping.
Supplies:
Trusty blade for cutting denim.
Process:
I arranged everything BEFORE mixing the resin and hardener. Wax paper is for easy cleanup.
Protip: Fiberglass resin cures WAY faster than you would expect. I had about 4 minutes before this happened
The Skippy container got hot enough to melt slightly!
Anywho, once I realized it was beginning to cure, I slapped everything together quickly.
Protip: Clamp this thing together HARD.
After letting it cure overnight, I pulled the slab out and went about tracing the handle. I used a hacksaw to get a rough cut on the shape, then used a bench grinder to get it close enough to hand sand. I also used the bench grinder to remove the manufacturing marks left by Spyderco.
Slabs!
Hole drilling.
In order to mount these to the handle, I used three screws and nuts, plus I epoxied the slabs to the handle on the outside of the slabs. I figured this would "seal" the handle, disallowing moisture to get into the handle. It's also a fail safe in case the three small screws don't cut it. Once the handle was on, I made a slurry of epoxy and denim dust (from sawing and grinding) to plug the screw holes.
I used my lady's clear nail polish to seal up the outer layer. One coat, sand with 400. Two coats, sand to perfection.
Next time, I'll spring for a 60-minute epoxy in order to avoid premature curing. I'm curious to see other people's efforts at doing this! Maybe I'll try it again on the next Mule Team project!
I used an old pair of Diesel Jeans, as I wanted something "special" for the Spyderco MT17 in K390. For those of you who are unaware, this particular pair of jeans was $250 new
I decided to go with a fiberglass resin instead of epoxy, as I tried an epoxy run and it failed. The first batch had a vein of unsaturated epoxy off center in the block, making it useless. Fiberglass resin is 1/3 the cost of epoxy, so resin it was.
Protip: Don't count on the epoxy to bleed through all layers under clamping force! FULLY saturate ALL layers before clamping.
Supplies:
Trusty blade for cutting denim.
Process:
I arranged everything BEFORE mixing the resin and hardener. Wax paper is for easy cleanup.
Protip: Fiberglass resin cures WAY faster than you would expect. I had about 4 minutes before this happened
The Skippy container got hot enough to melt slightly!
Anywho, once I realized it was beginning to cure, I slapped everything together quickly.
Protip: Clamp this thing together HARD.
After letting it cure overnight, I pulled the slab out and went about tracing the handle. I used a hacksaw to get a rough cut on the shape, then used a bench grinder to get it close enough to hand sand. I also used the bench grinder to remove the manufacturing marks left by Spyderco.
Slabs!
Hole drilling.
In order to mount these to the handle, I used three screws and nuts, plus I epoxied the slabs to the handle on the outside of the slabs. I figured this would "seal" the handle, disallowing moisture to get into the handle. It's also a fail safe in case the three small screws don't cut it. Once the handle was on, I made a slurry of epoxy and denim dust (from sawing and grinding) to plug the screw holes.
I used my lady's clear nail polish to seal up the outer layer. One coat, sand with 400. Two coats, sand to perfection.
Next time, I'll spring for a 60-minute epoxy in order to avoid premature curing. I'm curious to see other people's efforts at doing this! Maybe I'll try it again on the next Mule Team project!