Micarta damage

gasoline evaporates fairly quickly, how about soaking in oil to see if it penetrates the micarta? btw, i oil my kitchen blades with a light coat of olive oil, and sometimes it darkens the micarta, but the next time i wash it(could go for a week or more with out use) the darkening dissappears and it looks like new.
 
The pieces were soaked in gasoline in a sealed jar and acetone in a sealed separate jar. There is no way either evaporated. They were lit up within seconds after dumping them out on the ground and they were still wet when the lighter touched them.

STR
 
Maybe your lighter wasn't hot enough to light the Micarta...:D
Try an O/A torch...:rolleyes:
I'll bet that will cause some damage...;)

There's no way a gas soaked piece would be damaged unless it was a very thin sectioned material...:)
There are some organic solvents that will damage both Micarta, G10, and G11.
Paint stripper (methylene chloride) is the only one I can think of that anyone would have ready access to.
 
I have trouble believing that paint thinner or turpentine will have any affect on Micarta anymore than acetone did but I'll find out. Tomorrow I'll soak pieces of scrap canvas, linen, and paper Micarta in both thinner and turpentine and some oil too and we'll see what happens. I'll make sure to include both bead blasted and polished pieces to compare both.

I'll put them in the liguids first thing tomorrow morning, seal them up so no evaporation can occur and then give it 24 hours for the first test.

Then depending on the results I'll repeat it for one week and view the samples again.

STR
 
I used a spray-on paint stripper to strip the coating off my Busse DABA. this was strong stuff, and bubbled the coating off in a minute or so. I got it on the canvas Micarta handles, and at first I thought it had discolored them, because they appeared lighter in color. Turns out the stripper simply cleaned the micarta of the skin oils that had naturally darkened it. You can get the same effect from washing in the sink with soap.
 
What someone could do is use a accurate kitchen scale weigh the micarta, soak it in oil then clean it off, and re-weigh it to see if the micarta absorbed any oil.
 
Rat Finkenstein said:
I used a spray-on paint stripper to strip the coating off my Busse DABA. this was strong stuff, and bubbled the coating off in a minute or so. I got it on the canvas Micarta handles, and at first I thought it had discolored them, because they appeared lighter in color. Turns out the stripper simply cleaned the micarta of the skin oils that had naturally darkened it. You can get the same effect from washing in the sink with soap.
Click to expand...
Yep, it will take off the finish, and remove oils.
If left soaking in stripper, I'm pretty sure it will do more than clean the outer layer off, but I haven't tried it yet, and could be mistaken...I've been wrong before, according to the ex-wife...
G10 will eventually dissolve in stripper.
Phenolic resin is pretty resistant to chemicals.
Paint thinners and turpentine will have no effect.
 
I was going to wait to post the results of my findings but I see no need to wait any longer. I've been soaking scrap pieces of canvas, linen, and paper Micarta in thinner, turpentine, diesel fuel, motor oil, and laquer remover since my last post. I even went so far as to soak a few scraps of each in an old time mixture of liquids I have used for years to loosen stubborn rusted bolts consisting of diesel fuel, auto tranny fluid, acetone, and paint thinner.

I see no evidence that any of these chemicals harm or soak into Micarta in any way. Micarta seems unaffected by any of them whether it be highly polished or bead blasted. Burning off of the flamable liquid produced the same results as with the gasoline. Once the liguid burned off the fire went out and the material showed little signs of burn marking if any. The only one that showed any signs that it had been burned was the ivory paper Micarta but it rubbed right off with my thumb.

STR
 
Thanks for the work, most of the durability concerns about Micarta come from makers like McClung who used such statements to promote their G10/11 grips.

-Cliff
 
This thread is pretty old, but I finally found one regarding micarta handles.

I was about to buy a Muela Rhino knife with black micarta scales at my local knife store and while observing it, I saw a little dirt between the blade and the micarta scale. I asked the seller whether it is just a piece of black dirt or something more serious. Then he took out a tin-can from a shelf, probably "Zippo petrol/ gasoline, and poured it on a piece of towel. Afterwards, he rubbed and cleaned off the dirt of the micarta scale with the substance and it was clean.

Then I purchased the knife and went back home. As I observed the knife at home, one of the micarta scales was brighter (whiter) near the blade than the other. I realized that it was the scale which has been cleaned by the seller with the gasoline substance and I think the black color was partially taken off (cleaned off) of the micarta scale. I know that Zippo gasoline is highly aggressive and dissolves almost anything I can think of. In addition, the brighter micarta scale is also more rough on the discolored side than the other one.

Is it possible that this brightness (whiteness) is not a discoloration caused by the seller´s inadequate treatment, but is as his colleague told me, a normal feature of a brighter micarta layering from the factory (to guard his back). The black micarta is not entirely black, because it has alternating layers of whitish micarta as any other micarta scales. However, this part is too bright compared to the rest of the micarta scales and brought up my suspicion.

Is there a way to do something about it, like paint it black somehow to look more like the other micarta scale? Or is the seller obliged to give me a refund?

Thank you for replying in advance.
 
John Galba-
Just wipe the scale down with WD 40 or any light oil. Solvents simply remove residual oils from the Micarta surface.
It will be fine, trust me.
 
I am glad that I have found this thread as I have been wondering about the difference (in durability) between Micarta and G10. Pretty good REAL world test information here. There are just too many 'speculation' and 'guess' work/statments out there. Thank you, STR, for spending your time and effort and share the results with us.
 
In reference to John Galba's comments:
I have an A G Russell Brute with coral Rucarta handle slabs where one side has two lighter chalky areas in a linear fashion. When I received the knife it was very dry and the pivot and backlock bar squeaked terribly. I used some quality oil to lubricate these areas and wipe down the scales. These chalky areas were unaffected by the oil overnight. These blemishes are just as smooth as the surrounding micarta and not depressed as if it where gouged. After I read John's comments I thought that this may be my case too where a lighter area of laminate is towards the surface. Would "burning" the micarta with improper speed and pressure during the finish/polish stage cause this? Is there anything that could be done to blend this in ( stain, isolated light or WD40 exposure)?
Thank you for any insight.
Dave
 
Please note the light area in the center and also the lanyard hole area.

th_image_zpsueohn3au.jpeg
 
John Galba was last on here 5/29/15, 14 days after that post. I doubt he would be expecting a response over a year later...

If you have a question that pertains to a topic that was covered in an old/necro thread, create a new thread and link this thread in your newly created thread and reference the post, or even quote it.

That being said, this thread is quite a treasure trove and worthy of bookmarking, I have done so over a year ago.
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To answer your question, it might just be some of the micarta fabric, the layers will alternate light and dark, and as they are sanded, you might get a light spot from the fabric as a final layer.
This looks possibly like the case here.
 
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