Kirinite

K

KrabbyKakes

Joined
Jun 22, 2013
Messages
261
Ok so i recently purchased some kirinite for an upcoming knife project. Im not going to lie it was an impulse buy because its awesome looking but now, i cant find any info on it. Is it toxic and how does it feel when shaping? I found a thread that said Kirinite is almost like plastic but will dent instead of crack. That makes me think that it is like a hard rubber consistincy but i gave no idea if this is true. All help is greatly appreciated!

P.S.- The steel i ordered was .140" 1084. Is that thickness OK for a large fixed blade i.e. 7-8 inches? It seems that i will have a LOT of leftover steel so i was going to make a big camp knife.
 
.140" is a pretty thick knife. It will be OK for camp choppers. I rarely use steel above .120" unless I am forging.
 
Wow thanks for the FAST reply.
Anyway, thats good news to hear because i has gotten excited about a chopper. I looked at some Beckers and the 3/16 inch steel had me a little dissapointed.
 
I love kirinite. It is very easy to work with (much easier than micarta), the closest thing I can compare shaping it to is plexiglass. I think i remeber reading it is nontoxic and it deffinitly doesnt stink like micarta. When finished it has a tacky feel to it but I don't know if I would really call it rubbery, it's pretty hard. Hope this helps!
 
Sweet! Thanks for the advice guys. I made my first knife with a file and some micarta last year and since i joined a couple of months ago, I've read that micarta is hard to work with. It looks like these next knives are going to come out a lot better than the previous ones!
 
Mark Behnke said:
Here is a little info on the product:
http://usaknifemaker.com/handle-mat...e-white-mop-3-8-x-1-5-x-5-pair-of-scales.html

I made this knife with it and found it very easy to shape and polish, hand sanding is easy and buff lightly as it will over heat and smear. Takes a nice polish easily and has a very good feel .
Click to expand...

I agree. You can't buff too long or it'll get squirrelly. I sand it to 1200 or so and either buff it with a cotton rag by hand or very lightly on a soft wheel. It does look cool but it felt very light and almost frail to me but it is some cool looking stuff.
 
I don't know if it as frail as it seems. I made a keychain out of it, and it has lasted almost half a year of being banged around without a scratch or dent.
 
I feel it shapes very easily. A 220 belt finish starts to look ok, but I wet hand sanded out to 1500 and it looks great. I do not have a buffer so I can't comment on that.
I thought it still had a grippy feel when finished.
 
It looks good, but I wonder about how durable would be on a user. I used Acrylester once and it looked awesome, but overall it was pretty soft (as compared to other handle material) and the lady using it has already dinged it up a few times (it was on a kitchen knife). It'll be interesting to see how this does long term!
 
Well i won't be abusing them that bad. Everything should come in next week and finished the week after that. I will try to post pictures if somebody can tell me if you can upload from an IPod or Iphone's camera roll instead of a picture sharing website. If not, then i'll just give an update on how well it holds up.
 
I banged on a piece gently with a hammer and it didn't shatter. I recall the sales rep throwing it rather hard against the ground and it didn't break. It might not be as strong as micarta, but it's certainly stronger than any other plastic I've used.
 
I have a few pieces I look forward to using soon. I have seen pictures on the forum where it looks like the maker let the pins get to hot when grinding and it put a bad blemish around the pins.
 
If you saw burn marks around the pins, blame the maker not the material. I don't think it burns any more than any other stabilized wood. My son, Graham, made this when he was 14 and there are no blemishes around the pins.

There is one big flaw with kirinite, however. It's not thick enough to split in half and have matching scales. Not a big deal on gently patterned samples, or on a gun handle where you don't see both sides at the same time. On a knife, where you can see both sides from the top and bottom, you will notice the change in pattern.

attachment.php

attachment.php
 
I made a couple of knives with it so far. Works fine. I wear a mask regardless, so I don't know how it smells. I finished mine with scotchbrite pads up to the white ones.
 
My supplies should be in by Wednesday at the latest so I'm just waiting. At zaph1, I don't really care about symmetry as long as it looks good from the side. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top