Bought a new Becker BK7, and waiting on a BK39 that's in backordered status for now, ordered custom sheaths for both from Red Feather Gear.
While the waiting goes on I decided to replace the slick Black grips with something that grips better.
Having never done anything along these line, I started my research. All G10 I found were expensive, re-profiled slimmer, and altered the means of securing the grips to the knife. So G10 was crossed off the list ... next up was Micarta, few sellers with e-commerce websites to order from, making it hard to ask questions and even harder to order grips. Ka-Bar offering seemed best, but the color is wrong, seeing they are only offered green, meaning they come unfinished in natural canvas color. Another dead end ... more research lead me to info about dyeing Micarta, which is what this thread is about. Lots of youtube videos later and I find one that makes sense, is easy, fast, and won't make a huge mess! Finally decided on a possible solution, I bought 2 sets of the Ka-Bar BK77HNDL from Tomars, and headed to the store for my list of supplies ...
Rit liquid dye in Dark Brown, yes that's the whole list lol
The grips arrived, I figured I'm doing both sets, but how with what I have?!
Setting up the 'work station' was straight forward ... bottled water, lots of paper towels, make sure the stainless steel sink is clean and empty, get out the 38oz glass jar from the Jam ... go!
Filled jar 3/4 full of almost boiled bottled water, table spoon Salt, mixed and then top off jar with Rit dye. I had tied the grips together back to back with thread. I lowered the first set into the jar sitting in the sink ... perfect I'm thinking as I slowly stir the dye around the grips every 10 minutes with a straw. The videos say leave in from 15 - 30 minutes. I'm thinking this is a real guessing game having not done this before, so the first set stays in 25 minutes and I rinse the dye off in 2 other old plastic cups in the sink and dry with paper towels....they look great but I'm after even darker. Setting them aside to dry, I have one more shot at getting the next pair darker yet, but I'm struggling ... the solution has cooled, and I'm trying to think how am I gonna get the next pair dyed and darker?!
I turn stove on High, put an inch of water in a small pan, and bring my jar from the sink and set it in the pan to bring the temp back up, I didn't boil the water for either set but it's hot, the dye cools the water some so I feel the grips are okay ... round 2 solution is pretty warm now so I move the jar back to the sink, put more dye in to very top and put the second set in, slowly stirring about every 10 minutes, this set gets dunked for 40 minutes ... and get to where I was hoping for color.
Sorry for the long post on a subject most likely covered soooo many times before. This gave me the grip in the materials and color I was trying for and fairly easy, I hope this helps some one else with dyeing Micarta Becker grips!
Left set is darker of the 2.
Greetings from Big Sky Country!
Before
After
While the waiting goes on I decided to replace the slick Black grips with something that grips better.
Having never done anything along these line, I started my research. All G10 I found were expensive, re-profiled slimmer, and altered the means of securing the grips to the knife. So G10 was crossed off the list ... next up was Micarta, few sellers with e-commerce websites to order from, making it hard to ask questions and even harder to order grips. Ka-Bar offering seemed best, but the color is wrong, seeing they are only offered green, meaning they come unfinished in natural canvas color. Another dead end ... more research lead me to info about dyeing Micarta, which is what this thread is about. Lots of youtube videos later and I find one that makes sense, is easy, fast, and won't make a huge mess! Finally decided on a possible solution, I bought 2 sets of the Ka-Bar BK77HNDL from Tomars, and headed to the store for my list of supplies ...
Rit liquid dye in Dark Brown, yes that's the whole list lol
The grips arrived, I figured I'm doing both sets, but how with what I have?!
Setting up the 'work station' was straight forward ... bottled water, lots of paper towels, make sure the stainless steel sink is clean and empty, get out the 38oz glass jar from the Jam ... go!
Filled jar 3/4 full of almost boiled bottled water, table spoon Salt, mixed and then top off jar with Rit dye. I had tied the grips together back to back with thread. I lowered the first set into the jar sitting in the sink ... perfect I'm thinking as I slowly stir the dye around the grips every 10 minutes with a straw. The videos say leave in from 15 - 30 minutes. I'm thinking this is a real guessing game having not done this before, so the first set stays in 25 minutes and I rinse the dye off in 2 other old plastic cups in the sink and dry with paper towels....they look great but I'm after even darker. Setting them aside to dry, I have one more shot at getting the next pair darker yet, but I'm struggling ... the solution has cooled, and I'm trying to think how am I gonna get the next pair dyed and darker?!
I turn stove on High, put an inch of water in a small pan, and bring my jar from the sink and set it in the pan to bring the temp back up, I didn't boil the water for either set but it's hot, the dye cools the water some so I feel the grips are okay ... round 2 solution is pretty warm now so I move the jar back to the sink, put more dye in to very top and put the second set in, slowly stirring about every 10 minutes, this set gets dunked for 40 minutes ... and get to where I was hoping for color.
Sorry for the long post on a subject most likely covered soooo many times before. This gave me the grip in the materials and color I was trying for and fairly easy, I hope this helps some one else with dyeing Micarta Becker grips!
Left set is darker of the 2.
Greetings from Big Sky Country!
Before
After
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