Does stripping your blade with the handles on affect liners?

[Grey Falcon]

I've done a little research and it seems you can strip a blade with the handle scales on without affecting the micarta which is great because I want to keep the coating on under the handle scales, but I can't find a definitive answer on whether doing this on a handle that has liners would affect the liners.

Does anyone have any experience with this, and can it be done? Or do I have to remove the handle scales and wrap it?

It's a Tops knife, so getting those scales off is kind of a pain in the ass.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Grey Falcon]

anybody?

 

[Survival Apprentice]

I did this to my tops bob and it did not affect the liners.

 

[RX-79G]

When I did a similar stripping, I used a sharpened piece of brass to scrape the paint adjacent to the handles down to the steel. A 1/4" wide strip.Then I masked the handles and part of the stripped area and used Citristrip on the rest of the blade.

I didn't want to find out if the stripper would hurt the handles, or have any of it get underneath the the scales and cause corrosion. Brass won't scratch steel.