How to make Mikarta

[Fiddleback]

Anybody know of a tutorial???

Hints appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[CUTS LIKE A KRIS]

Look up Ariel Silverria (Spelling?)
He has had some fantastic threads here (I would look them up for you but time on my break just ran out)

 

[deker]

I just did my first batch with some advice from butcher_block (who I'm sure will chime in at some point). I haven't ground/milled it yet, but here's the procedure for what I've done so far.

- Find something to be plates to squash between. I used some leftover 2x8 scraps from my shop building.
- Find some cloth of different colors (old jeans in my case...Blue & Grey/Black)
- Find a suitable epoxy. Butch pointed me to Envirotex Lite. Try your local TrueValue store, or craft stores, etc.
- Cut your fabric up into suitable sized pieces (I went for 7"x11" since I wanted a 6x10 piece when I was done)
- Wrap your pressing plates in plastic wrap
- Place your bottom press plate on enough extra saran wrap to wrap around it all when you're done (optional, but saves on mess cleanup)
- Mix your Envirotex Lite. Pay special attention to the directions for your epoxy!
- Place a piece of fabric down on the bottom press plate
- Put a bit of epoxy onto the fabric and kind of squeegee it around the fabric to completely saturate the fabric. A little extra is better than not enough, but too much is a big mess.
- Lay the next layer of fabric down
- Epoxy it
- Repeat until desired thickness is reached (best to have all your fabric cut and thickness thought out first)
- Sprinkle small things to make impressions on the top when your done (I covered w/ plastic wrap first so I could re-use my dried corn, but I'm a cheapskate )
- Place the top plate on top
- Wrap up the whole business in the saran wrap you set the works on in the beginning
- Squash it! You can use a bunch of big C-Clamps, or a shop press. I used an anvil. Just make it something very heavy or something that exerts a lot of "squash".
- Let it set overnight.
- Unwrap and let fully cure for another day or two
- Grind/mill out the dimples on top
- Behold the glory you have wrought!

Some thoughts on thickness. Make sure you leave enough extra thickness to grind out any dimples you make in the top that give you your pattern (note: You dont' have to do this. You can just lay stuff up flat to get straight lines rather than that damascussy look). Also, expect to lose 1/4" or so to the squash itself. My pile was about 1" thick to start (19 layers of denim I think) and ended up between 5/8" and 7/8" thick (it squashed a little unevenly). After I mill out the dimples I'll have around 3/8"-1/2" thick scales to work with.

Hope that helps. If not, ask more questions!

-d

 

[Fiddleback]

Man awesome. I finally got the search to work on Ariel's name too. Thanks again.

Andy

 

[STR]

Here is a link I started that tells how a guy used denim jeans that were rags and converted them to his own homemade micarta type material laminating layer upon layer until he got the desired thickness. I know other guys that have done this with great results also.

STR

http://bladeandbarrel.com/kb.php?mode=article&k=6

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Very cool link, thanks for sharing.

Pad

 

[butcher_block]

deker has it right
one thing to remember is envirotex lite works well for fixed blades and is also clear but im going to be tring a few other epoxys so maybe i can lay up some thin folder scales (fearing that i ll not have nice clear epoxy to work with)
most epoxys have a yellowish tint to them some more then others
butch

 

[Fiddleback]

Thanks guys. I'm gonna give this a try.

 

[hp2spare]

This is the one I'm familiar with http://www.northcoastknives.com/northcoast_knives_tutorials_hints_tips14.htm