DIY Micarta

L

loudbay

Joined
Dec 31, 2006
Messages
29
I'm going to try it... I've been itching to buy another knife, so maybe this to keep my hands busy.

I think I'm going to layer old khaki pants with a black T shirt for 'grain'. I've watched and read a lot of pages about this, but I still have a question or two.

Anyone just epoxying them on?

Pins? What are people using for pins? I saw welding gun tips used.

Screws? Any good trick to measuring/drilling the correct depth hole for the heads? What's an adequate way to do it without any special equipment? Clamp them together, drill, sprinkle on prayers and rainbows?

Leave the coating on under the scales? Does the epoxy make enough of a seal to protect that metal if I remove the coating there (already gone actually).

Thanks for any help. I'm getting fiberglass resin on the way home.

Cheers,
Matt
 
Wow, good deal man.
1) Epoxy won't give you any shear strength, unless you use pins and peen them over. the epoxy is nice cause it helps hold the scales in place while your drilling the holes and it helps protect the metal from rust.
2) for pins I like copper grounding wire or brass rod.
3) I have a thread about this around here somewhere, it's a how to. Drill press with depth stop is key. I drill to .125 ish. Becker Grivory is approx, .104. No unicorn, pixie dust needed.
4) Leave the coating on, I'd rough it up to give the epoxy more to grab onto.
5) I started with fiberglass resin and did my first few knives with that. Lots of waste and real hard to get mixed right. Drops to ounces = suck. I liked the Bar top resin with the 1 to 1 mix ratio a lot better, Envirotex is the brand. Now I'm using a Marine epoxy resin, still a 1 to 1 , about $37 a quart.
 
1. Jump the gun.
2. Wait for ridiculously generous advice.
3. Return fiberglass epoxy.
4. Find marine Epoxy.

Epoxy on scales then drill... Genius.

Thank you.
 
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Nobody else answered this because we were all waiting for OREGON FAL'ER to find it. :thumbup:

Looking forward to see what you come up with. :)
 
I'd epoxy on one side (one scale) and then drill that one side going through the tang into the wood and then epoxy on the other side. Then I would drill out the other side using the existing hole from scale #1.

I've played with this a few times but I'm sure If you were to hit he builders forum there would be better ways and tecniques.
 
If you are going to use screws to attach the two sides together, you can chuck a nail in your drill and use the head to countersink the drilled holes if you don't have a countersink bit. The head of a nail is just imperfect enough to make it work. If you're going to epoxy the scales though, you might as well pin it up and peen the pins. It's prettier that way, and you can grind them down to be perfectly flush with the scales. Screws are really more purposeful for the option of removing the scales.
 
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