Industrial Micarta

D

dwaterfield

Joined
Feb 24, 2022
Messages
115
I had a booth at the Covered Bridge Festival the last couple weekends and was demonstrating general blacksmithing and knife making. Overall it went well, sold a lot of hooks and tripods and a few knives and talked to a lot of people.

One of the people I spoke to works in a metal shop that makes mostly rolled steel. They have machines that use big micarta pads that (as I understand it) allow heavy machine parts to move with less friction. Over time the pads are discarded and replaced with new ones as they wear out.

The gentleman heard me talking with a customer about different knife handle materials and when I mentioned micarta he wondered if I would be able to use one of the discarded pads. A few hours later I was the proud (?) owner of a piece of micarta about 2.5 feet long and six inches high.

So I have questions, assuming anyone is familiar with industrial grade micarta. Is it any different from "normal" micarta? Can it be worked with typical shop tools? Just want to make sure it's not going to destroy any blades or anything before I try it. I'm not sure how it will look once a scale is cut and polished, but it seems to have a bit of a grain pattern.

https://flic.kr/p/2pbcnE8
 
dwaterfield said:
I had a booth at the Covered Bridge Festival the last couple weekends and was demonstrating general blacksmithing and knife making. Overall it went well, sold a lot of hooks and tripods and a few knives and talked to a lot of people.

One of the people I spoke to works in a metal shop that makes mostly rolled steel. They have machines that use big micarta pads that (as I understand it) allow heavy machine parts to move with less friction. Over time the pads are discarded and replaced with new ones as they wear out.

The gentleman heard me talking with a customer about different knife handle materials and when I mentioned micarta he wondered if I would be able to use one of the discarded pads. A few hours later I was the proud (?) owner of a piece of micarta about 2.5 feet long and six inches high.

So I have questions, assuming anyone is familiar with industrial grade micarta. Is it any different from "normal" micarta? Can it be worked with typical shop tools? Just want to make sure it's not going to destroy any blades or anything before I try it. I'm not sure how it will look once a scale is cut and polished, but it seems to have a bit of a grain pattern.

https://flic.kr/p/2pbcnE8
Click to expand...

That's Freaking Awesome..... I expect you to start getting offers frome someone to buy it from you in 3.....2.....1


* Use it.
Just make sure it is free of metal or debris
 
Good one.
Just make sure you wear a good resperator. I have one that also folters out phenol fumes, they may come off there
 
It looks and sounds like material called "textit" here in the Czech Republic. I have seen makers use it and it looks awesome in my opinion. You should get some results if you google image with "textit knife" prompt. Great score.
 
Looks like linen/canvas micarta. Huge piece, life time supply for handles. Depending how you cut it, you will have different patterns. Do not know how i would go about to cut something this big though, large bandsaw and I guess it would kill couple of blades to get it in reasonable size pieces.
 
That is so cool, good Karma for the demo work you are doing. :thumbsup:
I don't want to put a downer on that great score, but it may be worth doing a few test piece glue up's just to be sure that it doesn't contain any anti friction ingredient like teflon or something that also has anti glue properties.🙏
It has a look of tufnol, that is awesome!
 
FredyCro said:
Looks like linen/canvas micarta. Huge piece, life time supply for handles. Depending how you cut it, you will have different patterns. Do not know how i would go about to cut something this big though, large bandsaw and I guess it would kill couple of blades to get it in reasonable size pieces.
Click to expand...

Good point about cutting different directions. I may try using my portaband on it, at least to get smaller chunks.
 
Way-Barney said:
That is so cool, good Karma for the demo work you are doing. :thumbsup:
I don't want to put a downer on that great score, but it may be worth doing a few test piece glue up's just to be sure that it doesn't contain any anti friction ingredient like teflon or something that also has anti glue properties.🙏
It has a look of tufnol, that is awesome!
Click to expand...

Oh good point. I think I'll start with a small piece and try gluing to a scrap piece of steel.
 
A fellow hoosier huh? I have some co-workers that make it down to that festival each year. I wouldn't mind going myself.

As for the micarta, it really depends, and you'll know pretty quickly whether you'll want to work with it or not.
There's lots of different grades of industrial phenolic, and some of it will absolutely destroy a bandsaw blade in short order. It also tends to eat through belts and starts wanting to burn on anything but a sharp belt. Then again, you may start cutting into it and find that it machines just like any other canvas or rag micarta that you're used to.
 
Vintage stinks pretty bad.

Worst I ever worked with was WW2 rag micarta.
It stunk up my basement shop for close to a week.

I think it got Into my skin. Too, for a few days.
I'm sure I shortened my lifespan
I'll never work with that again (hopefully)
 
Drew Riley said:
A fellow hoosier huh? I have some co-workers that make it down to that festival each year. I wouldn't mind going myself.

As for the micarta, it really depends, and you'll know pretty quickly whether you'll want to work with it or not.
There's lots of different grades of industrial phenolic, and some of it will absolutely destroy a bandsaw blade in short order. It also tends to eat through belts and starts wanting to burn on anything but a sharp belt. Then again, you may start cutting into it and find that it machines just like any other canvas or rag micarta that you're used to.
Click to expand...
I just realized my post didn't say Indiana. Oops! Yep, I live near Avon but through Scouting I know some people involved in the bridge festival. It's interesting because it's spread out through a bunch of Parke County towns, but sadly Montezuma is struggling to find crafts people. I'm not sure what will happen next year but I hope to be involved again.

I am concerned about what it might do to saws so I think later today I'll try either an old hand saw or the Portaband on it. I at least want to get a small enough piece to try working with it.
 
Crag the Brewer said:
Vintage stinks pretty bad.

Worst I ever worked with was WW2 rag micarta.
It stunk up my basement shop for close to a week.

I think it got Into my skin. Too, for a few days.
I'm sure I shortened my lifespan
I'll never work with that again (hopefully)
Click to expand...

Yikes. This should be pretty recent, the person who gave it to me said they swap out pads on a regular basis. Makes me wonder how much more might be laying around.
 
So I got a little shop time. First step was (very gingerly) cutting off a hunk on the bandsaw. That went ok, although the saw did complain and I got a little smoke towards the end.

https://flic.kr/p/2pbsNyc

https://flic.kr/p/2pboetJ

Next I hit it with 36, 60, and 120 grit belts and then hand sanded with 220 (I am out of 220 belts at the moment!)

https://flic.kr/p/2pbu6SL

Because I'm curious I tried a conditioning belt and then the buffer as well.

https://flic.kr/p/2pbuJkS
https://flic.kr/p/2pbofRy

The material was not as hard to sand as I feared. It did produce a lot of fine yellowish dust. It heated up a bit on the 120 grit belt, I think because that belt is nearing the end of its lifespan. I got a pretty good shine in about 15 or 20 minutes of working through the grits. I like the appearance, the "grain" is interesting although less symmetrical than I expected. I noticed a few divots - you can see them in the last picture at the grinder where the light is shining on the piece. I'm not sure if that's because of my relatively quick sanding job or if there are spaces in the material. I think it's probably the sanding job.

I epoxied a small piece to a scrap piece of 1084....we'll see in the morning how well that did (or didn't) glue.
 
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Looks like a nice natural canvas phenolic. It could be from any number of producers. There were/are well over a dozen different producers of phenolic composites/plastics, and without a label, it's anyone's guess. Judging by the inconsistent pressing, it's probably not Westinghouse/International Paper, GE, Spaulding, or one of the other really big players. They all use/used a ridiculous amount of pressure to press their phenolics, which made/makes for a more uniform weave.

Regardless, it's really nice looking material with a wonderful patina. It should make some darn nice handles.

Judging by the patina, it looks like it has some age to it. I'm guessing they swap out their pads somewhat often... But if there's a chance that it could be a REALLY old pad (like 1970's or before), be careful with it. A lot of the old industrial phenolics that were used in high friction applications had not only graphite added on a regular basis, but also asbestos.

For what it's worth, here's how I handle cutting phenolics:

Really valuable stuff (like ivorite, or rag) gets cut on the bandsaw with a Timber Wolf thin kerf blade. The blades DO NOT last long, but for the high value stuff, it's worth it.

For paper, linen, canvas, I use a table saw with a zero clearance insert, a Grr-ripper pushblock, and a Norske 7-1/4" or 8-1/2" CIRCULAR saw blade (Diablo does a good job too). I use a 7-1/4" blade for material up to 1" thick, and the 8-1/2" blade for material up to 2" thick.

I also use the table saw to cut glass. I use a 4.5" - 5" super thin kerf, diamond tile saw blade on the table saw for that.

Saves a TON of money, and makes for really accurate cuts.
 
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