Micarta roughening

R

redman2006

Joined
Nov 6, 2012
Messages
306
I tried a search, but I can not seem to find what I am after.
How can I roughen a polished micarta handle to provide a little grip without making a mess of things?
 
File, sandpaper, steel wool...
Experiment on one side.
I'm all function and no form, and like my handles grippy. The only one I made slightly less so, was a benchmade 810 contego.
 
I was thinking the same, but I did not want to hose it up too badly.

It is a bravo one. I don't want to go as far as my izula, but a little texture would be a good thing.
 
I used sandpaper on my Bravo1. It took the sheen off and gave it a nice feel. I like a good texture so I sanded and rasped just about all my Micarta.
It will get dirty but a quick scrub with dish soap and a scrubby pad will bring it back looking new.
 
if you know someone who has a sandblaster you may want to give that a shot... This leaves a nice grippy finish on it =)
 
I made a file knife a month or so ago with micarta grips. I sanded it to 1200 grit and buffed it with a buffing wheel. Nice and shiny...... and slippery. I just used some 120 grit sand paper to rough the handle up and rubbed it done with some baby oil to darken it up some. Works like a charm. It's grippy now
 
I did the same thing to my Bravo 1's. I just used very coarse (60 grit) sandpaper and was very happy with the results.
 
redman2006 said:
I was thinking the same, but I did not want to hose it up too badly.

It is a bravo one. I don't want to go as far as my izula, but a little texture would be a good thing.
Click to expand...

I hit all of my BRK&T handles with 320-grit to give them more grip. It works well, doesn't take off much material, and removes all of that glossy polish that seems to come standard.

B
 
Well, it looks like I will start at 320 and work down from there until I get to where I wnt to be.

Thanks guys.
 
320 will remove the sheen and still be nice and smooth. I like to almost score it with 60 or 80 grit to raise the texture. If you go down to the lower grits, stay in one direction and go around the handle pins to prevent scratching them. It is easy and you really can't screw up. If you go too low and don't like it for some reason you can always smooth things back out with the higher grits.

Good luck
 
I used 120 grit light handedly with swirling patterns under the faucet when doing my rat3, i had to round some edges aswell.
Ideally for micarta to be grippy you want the fibers to be exposed as the resin itself is rather smooth unless you gouge it up with low grit.
I find it to be nicer looking than the plain ole machined slab with a uniform brown sheen and the texture is noticeably enhanced especially when wet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top