micarta handles and fire

Well like anything if you get it hot enough it'll burn, its a simple material just a resonably thin material usually paper or canvas which is sandwiched with lots of epoxy and hardened under great pressure and temperature to make a amazingly strong composite material, kind.

As far as I know that is true, someone might poke holes in me though.
 
From the Busse Combat website:

What is Micarta anyway?

Micarta was developed by Westinghouse. It has a higher tensile strength than steel and is impervious to changes in temperature. It will not swell, warp, or crack, even under adverse conditions, once it is on the knife. There are three types of Micarta and several grades of these three types. They all consist of layers of either paper, linen, or canvas.

MICARTA TRIVIA BUSTER:

The inventors of Formica (kitchen counter tops) had borrowed so heavily from Micarta technology that the name "Formica" is short for the term "Formerly Micarta". Think of that the next time you drop a skillet on the kitchen counter....
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Not much but it's a start...
 
rugershooter16 said:
How fire resistant are the micarta handles? Also, what are some facts on micarta?
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As mentioned by others, micarta is layers of fabric or paper held together by resin. There are several dozen different grades of Micarta Norplex-Micarta made from different resins (http://www.ilnorplex.com/). If you take "micarta" as a generic term, there are even more. The most common resins used are phenolic and epoxy.

There are about a gazillion grades of epoxy. Likewise for phenolic. In general, phenolic resins decompose at a higher temp than epoxy. Most epoxies will go to somewhere around 300°F before thermal decomposition begins. Phenolics will go to ~450° or more.

Knarf
 
my worries are in this order:

.1 ruining the steel's temper (and finish)
.2 burning my hand
.3 then the blackened handle
 
Oh: Westinghouse developed it, yes...that was already said...what wasn't said was that it was originally made as an insulator for high voltage power lines ;)
 
Paper Micarta was developed as an insulating wrap for windings in high voltage transformers (the big ones in substations).

When the transformers are allowed to operate for long periods of at over 115 degrees C oil temperature, the paper micarta will gradually deteriorate, releasing trace amounts of combustible gas into the transformer oil and eventually suffering dielectric failure. It will burn at the point of electrical failure, and if enough combustible gas has been generated, can ignite the transformer oil.

I suspect that paper micarta would burn long before he temper of a knife steel was affected, but do not have any hard data on this.

I have no professional experience with other types of micarta.
 
A Busse Steel Heart E with canvas micarta handles was blown up in a closet with stored explosives in an episode of CSI. The knife was actually in the explosion, not just faked on screen.

In the CSI episode, they morned that the knife was lost as evidence due to being destroyed in the explosion, but in reality, the knife survived pretty well, including the micarta handles. It was purchased by a Busse hog and I have seen pictures of it on Bladeforums. The micarta looks to be in pretty good shape.
 
MikeH said:
A Busse Steel Heart E with canvas micarta handles was blown up in a closet with stored explosives in an episode of CSI. The knife was actually in the explosion, not just faked on screen.

In the CSI episode, they morned that the knife was lost as evidence due to being destroyed in the explosion, but in reality, the knife survived pretty well, including the micarta handles. It was purchased by a Busse hog and I have seen pictures of it on Bladeforums. The micarta looks to be in pretty good shape.
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yep thats true, here is a before pic of the knife from csi.

bussewhat.jpg
 
G10 and Micarta are basically the same thing. The only difference being the material the resin is sandwiched with. With G10, it's woven fiberglass. With Micarta, it's paper, linen or canvas.
 
since my dad is an electrician, he has managed to get me some of linen micarta from the substations he works at, its great stuff. I saw that episode of csi but had never heard of a Busse knife then (last year i think?)
 
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