Make Your Own Micarta

[jawilder]

I've been thinking of giving a shot at making my own micarta and found this tutorial. I thought it was very informative, so I thought I would share.

I assume you could mix and match color patters assuming you could find other colors of jean material cheaply.

http://www.britishblades.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21836

 

[Fiddleback]

The problem I found was getting a decent resin for cheaply. You can use the bondo stuff from Home Depot, but its not clear. You can get the good clear marine epoxy resin, but its not cheap.

Ask Butch. He's the Mikarta guy.

 

[butcher_block]

that pretty much sums things up its not true micarta cause its not a phenolic resin but you can have fun and make some good strong stuff thats all manner of colors

 

[jawilder]

how is phenolic resin different than the stuff he used? Stronger maybe?

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Phenolic resin is as different from epoxy/polyester resins as steel is from aluminum.
The short answer is you can't work with phenolic resins at home.

The home made stuff is not Micarta. Micarta is a trade marked name. A knife that you made that looks like a Spyderco can't be called a Spyderco because they didn't make it. I ( and others) refer to the home product as Mycarta.

It is fun to make your own, but the final product is not the same as Micarta ,IMHO. I have tried several makers products and found them greatly inferior to the real thing.

That said, a lot of makers have a ball making some neat looking stuff.
Stacy

 

[jawilder]

Thanks Bldsmth,

I am still learning about these things and that helped quite a bit.