hand made MICARTA anyone???

rustyrazor

rustyrazor

Joined
Oct 13, 2011
Messages
1,774
hey Gents

I've been tooling around on the ole interweb and I've seen a few sites where people have made their own Micarta. does anyone have experience with this, and if so how was the final product? Ie: does it grind/polish/discolour similar, and is it fairly tough? I've been thinking about this for quite some time now as I have some ideas on what would make a pretty fine pattern (in my mind at least) however I'm a little iffy on trying this without a bit of background, so if you've got a suggestion, I'm all ears.
 
there is alot of fail when you first get started but i have mine down where im happy with the product

alot has to do with the resin you used and how well it can "wet out the fabric you use
 
It is a messy affair with a steep learning curve.

Be very well organized and do a mock run or two.

When the epoxy is kicking off is no time to remember or change something. . .When there is a fail in the laminate shop, it tends to be expensive as well as aggravating dealing with the stickery mess cooking off :grumpy:

All in all, I recommend buying instead of making. :cool:

Good luck
 
Check out Ariel Salaverria if you have not already. His tutorials give a great visual of how he makes it. My Salaverria "mycarta" has held up wonderfully for the last 2 years.
 
butcher_block said:
there is alot of fail when you first get started but i have mine down where im happy with the product

alot has to do with the resin you used and how well it can "wet out the fabric you use
Click to expand...

Butch, you have yours down where EVERYONE is happy with the product.:thumbup:
 
buying instead of making isn't an option... where's the fun in that! If you guys have any pitfalls I should watch out for before kicking this off, or recomendations on the best resins to use, I'm all ears. I assume the first run will be a complete dog's breakfast, but that's fine... work in progress.
 
I started off using EverCoat and cloth. Did real well. Then I decided to go cheap and use the Bondo brand from ACE and tried it with paper. Poor results. Not sure if it was the Bondo or the paper, or both! I'll stick with cloth and Evercoat from now on!
 
I make my own mycarta and have been doing so for a long time. Pleased with my results!
SANY2383.jpg

5-3.jpg

bowie3.jpg

smallfighter2.jpg

And like Kris mentioned check out Salaverria's how to....it's quite simple
http://www.aescustomknives.com/docs/tutorial5.htm
 
I tried it and talked to Isreal Turley and got some ideas from him. I have only made one run and it did not turn out good, b/c I did not think that Iz told me right when he said that he used over 30 sheets of burlap to do his. I had 15 and it was super thick, until I compressed it. Should have used thrity+ and not squeeze it so hard between the boards next time I pushed all the epoxy out but I am sure that there were no bubble in it. I am going to give it another try sometime soon but it is expensive to try and mess up. I got the epoxy at the Home Depot in the paint section. I got some stuff from the auto parts store but it stinks and have not used it yet to see what it does.
 
Moved to Shop Talk. Please learn what the different forums cover. Custom & Handmade is for the discussion of custom knives, not the nuts & bolts of building them.
 
I agree, if you can just go buy what you need, why bother but it's not that simple. I just can never find what I have in mind as "rag micarta" a lot of stuff is close, but nothing matches the handle I see in my head when I'm doing the mental gymnastics of my knife. besides, I have access to a lot of really cool materials, so I figure what the hell, might as well make a run at it.... who knows? might even turn out.
 
Happy people sit and smile.
It's the ones who see a little farther who go the extra mile.
If we all settled for what we could get, we'll never get anything new.
 
the lack of rag micarta avability is what made me start making so i understand

best bet is then to use a bread pan for its smaller size and do a few small scale setup to see how much to press and how to chop the fabric
my box is 6x10 and i make blocks 4 inch tall at a time i use 8-10 yards of canvas and over a gal of resin at a time (i can still tell you how pissed i get when i have voids even after doing this for years )
http://www.harnerknives.com/wp-content/gallery/holding/dsc06218sm.jpg
 
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Strictly speaking, unless you're using thermosetting resin, it's not actually Micarta.
Performance wise though there's very little in it. Mainly down to the resin used and not trying to make too much in one go.
Thermal runaway is no fun even in workshop quantities.
 
pretty sure, unless it's licenced under the trademark "micarta" then it's not actually micarta:D ...but it's as close as I'm going to make in my crappy little shop. And thanks Butch, I'm going to use your advice on this one and start the set-up for the first few trials soon, and I can only assume I'll be dissapointed at first, but I gotta try it. ever tried anything with loose hessian? it looks good in my mind at least, but it's free at work and i can get around 6 subdued colours, so if it doesnt' turn out it's not much of a loss.
 
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