flexible liners

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Nov 7, 2012
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anyone using flexible liners or spacers for laminating between curves on a handle?
I wan't a thin liner and don't want to mill the liner.

thanks
 
Do you mean a flexible spacer between handle materials rather than between tang and handle?
 
I've seen leather spacers. I could also imagine using thin copper and bending it to shape since it's so soft.
 
I have used leather. The knife it is on still looks great, although it was brought to my attention that the leather could attract moisture and flex too much. No issues so far through
 
I may not be the best person to take advice from as i've only made two knives. That being said, the last one i made had copper in the handle. it worked really well on that knife. On the one i'm working on now, i had to remake the handle because it started to delaminate.... if you do use the copper or similar material, make sure you scuff it up quite a bit as that's why my last one failed.....
If you want to check it out, here it is.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-87HUvbq0MMTEFSZURDOVYyQnc/view?usp=sharing
 
Another reason that copper can delaminate easily is because it transmits heat so well. The heat can cause your epoxy to fail. Take it really slow with copper and give it plenty of time to cool down while grinding.
 
While copper is an attractive metal and our first to shape eons ago that we feel a unconscious attraction to I am hesitant to use it on my knives as a liner, spacer or handle do to the possibly of it oxidizing and pushing things apart.

Be sure to scuff/texture it and wash with denatured alcohol to clean out all moisture etc before buttering up with a solid epoxy and allowing to cure properly. I prefer G-Flex .

As far as flexible liners, I've been using Kydex for more than a decade now and am very happy with the results.:)
 
You could always use several layers of a cloth that's the right color. Cut the pieces roughly to size, use a credit card to squeegee in epoxy and squeeze it all together. Like home made mycarta, only for a fixed in place liner. I've done it a few times and it works great, the epoxied cloth was just a part of the handle glue-up.
 
This is a knife I made some time ago. I used the vulcanized liner material available from most knifemaker supply houses. I think you can see in the photo that the liner is between the tang and scales as well as between the bolsters and scales. Some will say that using this material is a bad idea due to potential shrinkage but, it seemed to work just fine for Loveless and a lot of other makers.

Bob

Untitled by Bob, on Flickr
 
In an application like the curved liner against the bolster, using a thermo-plastic like PVC or Kydex will allow warming it and getting a perfect fit. It will retain the curve after it cools.

Leather also works very good. It can be sealed with thin CA resin after the initial sanding and made rock solid.
 
lukus said:
You could always use several layers of a cloth that's the right color. Cut the pieces roughly to size, use a credit card to squeegee in epoxy and squeeze it all together. Like home made mycarta, only for a fixed in place liner. I've done it a few times and it works great, the epoxied cloth was just a part of the handle glue-up.
Click to expand...


Lukus, I was wondering this exact same thing, and planned on trying it on my next batch. Seems so simple, glad to here it works. I've been making my own micarta anyway with West 105, seems like less mess to cast it in place. I was going to get a light colored canvas and dye it different colors before I epoxy and clamp it.
 
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