They are all very smooth feeling, but when they get wet, they get grippy. I took one handle up to 2000 grit by hand (the big chef knife and blue/purple/aqua handle), still got grippy when wet. I did another one to 600, thin super glue applied and then re sanded to 600. Felt smoother than the 2000 grit, but still got grippy when wet. These are around 400-600 grit finish for most, and around 1K for the carbon fiber one.
If I blasted that burlap handle, it would have had a LOT more texture. Less pressure, more epoxy remaining in the handle piece to fill in the gaps. The burlap one has glow in the dark pigment in the epoxy and in the pins, too.
I tried doing a camo style block of pieces of burlap, but it had a TON of air bubbles in it:
If you use a vacuum chamber and/or pressure pot, you may get better saturation of the material with less bubbles in the end product. If you take the saturated material out and then pressed it, it may be more like prepeg real micarta texture wise since the fabric itself will be soaked, but the excess may be easier to squeeze out and with less air bubbles? I needed to let the burlap soak in the epoxy longer before pressing it so the little bubbles/voids had time to be filled with the epoxy. When I did the stacked layer glow burlap, I used a lot less pressure so I wouldn't force the epoxy out. Vacuum/pressure pot will give different results and the block may not be compressed as much unless you put it into the chamber with pressure already on it. Big difference with a piece being under pressure from a press versus vacuum/pressure pot along.
There are so many variables to try out! But most homemade mycarta has less felt texture until it gets wet, then the fibers kinda stand up like wood fibers to and give nice grip and then go back down when it dries out. Even after super glue and sanding back down and Tung Oil, they still do this a bit and some chefs that tried the handle loved that feature! Handle was smooth until wet, then it got super grippy and they had great control still!
If I blasted that burlap handle, it would have had a LOT more texture. Less pressure, more epoxy remaining in the handle piece to fill in the gaps. The burlap one has glow in the dark pigment in the epoxy and in the pins, too.
I tried doing a camo style block of pieces of burlap, but it had a TON of air bubbles in it:
If you use a vacuum chamber and/or pressure pot, you may get better saturation of the material with less bubbles in the end product. If you take the saturated material out and then pressed it, it may be more like prepeg real micarta texture wise since the fabric itself will be soaked, but the excess may be easier to squeeze out and with less air bubbles? I needed to let the burlap soak in the epoxy longer before pressing it so the little bubbles/voids had time to be filled with the epoxy. When I did the stacked layer glow burlap, I used a lot less pressure so I wouldn't force the epoxy out. Vacuum/pressure pot will give different results and the block may not be compressed as much unless you put it into the chamber with pressure already on it. Big difference with a piece being under pressure from a press versus vacuum/pressure pot along.
There are so many variables to try out! But most homemade mycarta has less felt texture until it gets wet, then the fibers kinda stand up like wood fibers to and give nice grip and then go back down when it dries out. Even after super glue and sanding back down and Tung Oil, they still do this a bit and some chefs that tried the handle loved that feature! Handle was smooth until wet, then it got super grippy and they had great control still!
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