Ivory micarta

Jarrett Fleming

Jarrett Fleming

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Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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Does anyone here have any advice or tips for working with the ivory micarta from sheffield? This is my first time using this stuff and it has been an absolute nightmare to work with. I've never had trouble finishing any type of handle material but this stuff has just been giving me fits from the get go. It clogged up my bandsaw blade 3 times before I had two small scales cut out. All of my drill bits were filled with this stuff. I have been through 5 brand new 60 grit belts trying to roughly shape it. I finally tried a 36 grit belt and it was worthless in less than a minute. This is nothing like any other micarta I have worked with and I use micarta quite a bit. This stuff just melts or smudges hard to explain. I have tried turning the speed on my grinder way down but get the same results. I can't imagine that this is normal, because who would work with this crap? I have a feeling the antique micarta I bought from there is going to give me the same problems because it looks very similar just a different color.
I'm planning to just throw away the rest of the 5x12" sheet I bought which stinks because I really like the look of this material when it is finished and it was one of the most expensive micartas that sheffield has.

By the way I'm not trying to badmouth sheffield I have bought a good amount of material from them in the past and have no complaints.
 
Try slowing down your drills, and saw......
How many teeth/inch is your band saw blade..?
 
The drill is slowed down as slow as it will go and the bandsaw blade has 14 TPI.
I'm already done with sawing and drilling anyways and have no plans to ever use this stuff again it just isn't worth it. The problem now is getting the handle shaped.
 
Is what you have Westinghouse Micarta (tm), or a generic micarta..?...I ask because I used to work
with the Westinghouse paper based ivory (aka bone) Micarta, (back when !) and don't remember having those
difficulties.
Anyhow, for this piece, it might be worthwhile to do the rest of the shaping with files
and sandpaper..??
 
I used some of the same stuff in the last month. After getting it roughed in the finish work was much easier. It came out beautiful but I'll never try it again
 
Russ I don't know how to tell whether it is westinghouse or the generic stuff. I do know that every other type of micarta that I have used from sheffield has worked just fine. I think I'm just going to have to hand sand it the rest of the way. I don't want to even think about letting one of my files touch this stuff. It would be clogged up after about 2 strokes!
If anyone wants the rest of this material you can have it. Just send me your addy and pay for the shipping. Consider yourself warned though it is NOT fun to work with :mad:

Rick I'm sure this material would look beautiful finished I've got a long way to go with this knife though lol.
 
Jarrett, if it's not spoken for, I'll take the micarta if you really don't want it. Hit me up. I'll pay shipping no problem.

As far as working with it, I just use cheap, sharp belts and suffer through. It takes a lot of hand sanding and a light buff with oil at the end with white or pink rouge. I don't usually have a problem though, perhaps what you have is something more difficult than I've experienced. I will say it's hard to finish IME.
 
Salem, it has already been spoken for. I do have a 5x12" piece of antique micarta though and if it gives me the same problems I would be happy for you to take it off my hands. It's just not worth the headache IMO. I told the guy who is getting the ivory to let me know his experience with it. I imagine he will have the same problems. Like I said I've never experienced something like this before so I just have a hard time believing that this is normal. Perhaps I got a bad piece?
 
I just did two knives with this handle material, and didn't find it horrible to work with. I have been out of AO belts for a while, so I used ceramic blaze belts instead. It was shitty on the band saw, so I cut it roughly on the table saw without problems. A36g blaze and 60 blaze got it to shape, then hand sanding with rhynolite paper. It sanded and buffed quite nicely. I don't remember problems drilling it, but I wasn't thinking to observe differences. Maybe its a brand thing, or I lucked out?
 
I'm sure it is probably from a different manufacturer. I will be able to finish it by hand sanding and will post some pics when I'm done. I gave up on getting close with the machine. Got tired of ruining belts.
 
It may be worth contacting Sheffield and explaining how much trouble you've had with this micarta. It could be that they tried a new supplier, and that they would welcome the feedback from you.

Mike L.
 
Is it worse than maroon micarta? :D That stuff is just silly hard to work with.

VSM belts are cheap and decent, they might be a good thing to try. I just ground some Ironwood with them and was very impressed as I usually save used belts for scales... these were new all the way and when I tried a used 220 belt I realized how much time I waste trying to save money on belts.
 
I've worked with ivory paper micarta from a few different sources and while they are a little different to work with, I didn't have issues to your extent. Tough to work with yes, and a pain to finish, but it never felt 'gummy' and didn't clog my stuff like crazy.
 
Sometimes Zirconia belts are good on materials that clog other belts...
 
This is way worse than the maroon that I have used Daniel. Only problem I remember with the maroon was if you get it to hot it will turn kind of a yellowish or brown color, but that wasn't a big deal to fix.
This ivory that I got was just awful though. I actually just got back in from the shop. I tried grinding a bit more off with the belt grinder (I know I said I wasn't going to :D) and surprisingly it wasn't nearly as bad as yesterday. Have no idea what the difference was though, because I was using the same belts. I got it shaped well enough to move on to hand sanding and haven't had any problems with it during the hand sanding. I'll post the finished knife on here tomorrow. It's nothing fancy just a small skinner.
 
Jarrett
Normally if I get something that is other than I expected, I contact the supplier. They may have gotten the wrong material from their supplier.
Micarta is made from a phenolic resin and has a working temp somewhere around 370°F doesn't usually soften if worked at reasonable speeds. I've used ivory paper Micarta and the only problems I had was with the final finish, paper is a little hard to get shiny. What you have doesn't sound like Micarta, sounds like some kind of thermo plastic.
Hope this helps.
Jim A.
 
You could be right Jim. It definitely doesn't work similar to any other micarta I have had, but sheffield sells it as "Ivory (Bone) Paper".

Here are a few pics of the knife that gave me so much trouble.



 
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