Has anyone here used quartz in knife handles?

tonydahose

tonydahose

Joined
Oct 28, 2005
Messages
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i am not a knifemaker but i have started pimping some in the last couple of months, mostly spyderco kopas and kiwis. i just finished this Mammoth Tooth Kopa

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and it was a pita for alot of reasons but since i pulled it off someone mentioned trying quartz. i know if is a pretty delicate material (if it dropped on the handle it might break) but i want to try and do it and if i suceed it would just be a safe queen, i have enough users. a few qustions i have is can i cut quartz with my cut off tool on a dremel. i have a diamond impregnated drum sanding bit for the dremel that would help me get the shape right but will quartz grind down on regular sandpaper? i usually get teh shape of the scale prefect then epoxy it down and then sand the scale material down till it is flush with the bolsters. if regular sandpaper does work what grit would i need to go up to before i could use the buffing wheel. i have grits from 36-2000. thanks for any and all answers.
 
while aluminum oxide (Al2O3, mohs hardness 9) sandpaper is harder than quartz (SiO2, mohs hardnes 7) meaning you can scratch quartz with sandpaper... you cant really shape it. To shape quartz you'll want lapidary equipment.
 
Quartz is too hard for you to work with, but there are lots of other stones and minerals you can go with. Frank
 
Short answer....You can't really do it with the tools and methods you describe.

Stacy
 
I can only think of two stones that could be worked by hand. Howlite and magnesite are both fairly soft stones at about 3.5 MOHS, softer than turquoise and often dyed to look like turquoise.

Even though they can be worked by hand it would take a lot of hours of work and the polish would be probably an "eggshell" semi gloss at best. They are a bit softer than mammoth tooth you used on the Kopa and about as likely to break in working by hand.

This is dyed magnesite on one of my early knives, Redrummd 132 -

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thanks for all the replies everyone and especially Michael for taking the time to email me some answers to my questions and the great how-to on your site.

edit: where can i find some dyed howlite? all i am finding are beads and necklaces. thanks
 
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I see dyed stone from time to time, but not all the time. If you have any gem and mineral shows nearby you can usually find some there.
 
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