Micarta Cover Coloring (Straighten Me Out) FINAL PICTURES

[Modoc ED]

If there are kids in the house you may want to warn them before you walk and dig around on the roof on Christmas...

The knife is on the woodshed roof. If the kids were to hear Santa on the roof it would mean that they had been bad and, as a result, sent to the woodshed.

 

[Will Power]

I don't know how I managed to miss the beginning of this experiment but I sure won't miss the finale!

It's already a given that the handles will be faded and the metal will be rusty but I'm interested to see if there's much separation between the components of the knife or if the scales will be warped in some weird manner.

I'm interested in this aspect too. Pretty sure corrosion and temp changes will cause shrink or even buckling

That is if it stays there......You never know, some Crow or large bird might take a liking to it Maybe there are Coons in your area? I hear they're inquisitive

I know one thing, I aint about to put no newly arrived Red Micarta knife of mine up on some outhouse roof, nor Rosewood for beetles to bore into...:thumbup:

All the best, Will

 

[Modoc ED]

I have no idea what the two knives pictured above have to do with a micarta covered knife in the elements so I'll close this thread before it'ts taken further off course.

 

[Modoc ED]

The knife is still under about 2 feet of snow. I was going to take it down Christmas day but as I said; it's buried. When the snow melts off, I'll take it down and we'll see what it looks like. It's suppose to rain instead of snow the next couple days so we'll see if that doesn't melt the snow off.

 

[Modoc ED]

Edited:

 

[Peregrin]

Post the pics, Ed! We're all on the edge of our seats waiting for the results! Seriously, don't keep us hanging!
The thread was derailed a little but I'm sure others that have expressed interest will be disappointed too.

 

[HST]

Yes! You opened it! No joke, I was really waiting on you to post your results. I'm glad you reconsidered your action.

 

[philllll]

Agreed! What's the point of a discussion thread if no one but OP can contribute?

Looking forward to seeing the results of your experiment.

Hey Will- I think your red micatra #25 would look just right with the "shed roof patina" treatment!

 

[Modoc ED]

Ya know what? Gary is right. I'll reopen the thread and post some pictures and hopefully nobody will take the thread off course.

I got tired of waiting for the snow to melt so I took the Mudbug off the wood shed roof today, took pictures of it in the snow on the roof and took pictures of what it looks like after 43-days of exposure to the elements - sun, rain, snow, ice, etc..

Here's what it looked like after I removed the snow from it.



Mark side after I brought it in the house.



Pile side after I brought it in the house.



The moisture from the snow darkened the micarta somewhat but as I type this, it is starting to turn back to this on the Mark side.



Actually, the pile side did not suffer all that much. Not much rust at all.

It's interesting to note that the micarta held up well except for the fading. There is no delamination of the micarta covers at all, no swelling at all, and no indication that the micarta tried to warp and pull away from the frame. Overall, the knife held up rather well. Of course the rust was to be expected no matter what knife with 1095 had been used.

I'm going to touch up the knife a bit - wipe some of the rust away and oil the joints along with the locking mechanism but I am not going to do a deep clean to it.

I hope you guys/gals liked this little experiament. It's nice to speculate about "what if" but that doesn't get the job done. You have to actually have some nut like me on hand to do the "what ifs". I'm not positive just now but I'm thinking about doing this with a stag covered knife and a bone covered knife sometime down the road.

 

[Peregrin]

Interesting results, Ed. I know that Micarta will fade just from the sun's UV rays. I've got a few it's really noticeable on and they were never left out in the weather. It looks like it would take a lot more exposure to really wreck that knife. Thanks for the post. I suspect that stag or bone covers wouldn't handle the exposure as well.

 

[btmccutcheon]

Ya know what? Gary is right. I'll reopen the thread and post some pictures and hopefully nobody will take the thread off course.

Here's what it looked like after I removed the snow from it.

Mark side after I brought it in the house.

Pile side after I brought it in the house.

The moisture from the snow darkened the micarta somewhat but as I type this, it is starting to turn back to this on the Mark side.

Actually, the pile side did not suffer all that much. Not much rust at all.

It's interesting to note that the micarta held up well except for the fading. There is no delamination of the micarta covers at all, no swelling at all, and no indication that the micarta tried to warp and pull away from the frame. Overall, the knife held up rather well. Of course the rust was to be expected no matter what knife with 1095 had been used.

I'm going to touch up the knife a bit - wipe some of the rust away and oil the joints along with the locking mechanism but I am not going to do a deep clean to it.

I hope you guys/gals liked this little experiament. It's nice to speculate about "what if" but that doesn't get the job done. You have to actually have some nut like me on hand to do the "what ifs" I'm not positive just now but I'm thinking about doing this with a stag covered knife and a bone covered knife sometime down the road.

Nice work ED. I couldn't do it to one of mine (long story about a knife lost), but it's good to see how well GEC's knives stand up to use and the elements. I'm impressed. Thank you Ed.

 

[Macchina]

I really appreciate the scientific results of this thread. I would love to know if the rust got into the locking mechanism or otherwise adversely affected the W&T of the knife.

I've had rust on the round tang of a GEC that severely affected the ride of the knife for obvious reasons.

 

[Modoc ED]

Yes, rust did get into the locking mechanism. I oiled and used some canned air to blow the oil into and out of it but the walk and talk is still somewhat slow/sluggish. It'll work itself out eventually but it is more than useable as is and as I said; I have no intention to do a deep clean of the knife.

I did put a bit of RemOil on a rag and wiped down the blade, spine, covers, and frame. It looks pretty good but I'm going to wait a few days for the oild to dry on the covers before taking photos to see how the covers react to the oil long termish.

 

[philllll]

Interesting to see that the blade rusted so much more on the 'up' side than the 'down' side. My biggest surprise is that the blade still looks pretty shiny. Is there any patina on the areas of the blade that didn't actually rust? If not, the rain in your area must not be particularly acidic.

 

[RDaneel]

Great experiment; thanks Ed.

 

[Modoc ED]

There is very very little patina if any other that the rust on the blade.

 

[okbohn]

One thing you can do to restore micarta is to sand lightly through the faded layer to the layer below. It will be the original color until it fades again.

 

[Ocellatus]

I was also surprised by how well the pile side fared, rust wise, and how little I knew about micarta, elemental damage etc.

A very enjoyable thread to follow Ed. Thanks!
O

 

[Tdhurl1103]

I'm glad you left this open Ed. I wanted a chance to say thanks for a pretty cool experiment. I, for sure, do not have the stones to do such a thing to my Red Mudbug.

 

[rishma]

I think the covers faded less due to the snow blocking the UV. Really interesting that the moisture and exposure didn't cause any warping/separating.