micarta

[offsetlover]

Hey STR, quick question for you...which would be easier to sand/finish: micarta or carbon fiber?

the reason i ask is that i may venture into working with it myself. what do you suggest i use when working with it also?

thanks in advance

OL

 

[STR]

Micarta in my opinion. You'll have to really cover yourself up and wear top notch protection to work the CF safely. Micarta is bad enough but not the same league as the CF in my opinion or experience. Now some Micartas are worse than others. The paper micarta like some of the ivory and others like that are real gummy and you'll go through record numbers of drum or belt sandings belts and paper sanding them. The black, green, brown, red, burgundy canvas and linen are great to work with. None of the micarta or cf works as well or as easily as the G10 does though. But breathing G10 dust for prolonged periods of time without proper protection is also quite dangerous and akin to breathing volcanic dust. The dust once aerated is full of glass fibers and breathing that will accumulate it in your lungs. The glass tears and cuts the air sak cells that allow oxygen to get carried and over time it will do permanent damage so its important to get a good respirator to work on any of these materials whether it be with machines or by hand.

Even after you take the respirator off be careful about left over dust on your clothes also. You can still have it lingering in small spaces for a long time so ventilation of some kind like a good exhaust fan is a plus.

If you don't have the proper protection do it out in the open because a confined space is going to kill your lungs.

STR

 

[STR]

By the way there are several ways to work that. If you want a more flat look like Spyderco and Emerson do on their knives its simply a matter of sitting the piece flat on a sturdy table top and sanding it up and down one way. Use a block and some different grits of sandpaper.

If you are looking for the feathering type jobs like you see on the Busse or some of the Hossom pieces simply use the slack belt on your grinder or you can do it by the 'shoe shine' method using a longer piece of sandpaper. Simply clamp your piece or screw it down on a narrow block and of sturdy wood no wider than the scale and clamp that wood in your vice. Then literally shoe shine the scale using that motion wrapping the sand paper over and around it off the edges to give it that rounded feathering look. Cut your scales out over sized to do this feathering though since it can reduce the width so the scales don't fit your liners if you don't overhang those all around until its sanded down. Once its got that feathering look then you can trim it out and take off the excess to fit exactly on the liner using a drum sander or finer belt.

Depending on the type finish you want progress with various grits. I'd probably start out with something course to get the shape done quick and move to a medium then to fine, then to 400 grit emory and on to 600 grit for the finish to remove all lines visible to the naked eye.

STR

 

[offsetlover]

thanks STR. im glad i asked. i was not sure exactly about how to progress through the sanding. what you said will definatly help.

it looks like the material i will be getting is canvas micarta from one of the guys here on the forums. this is going to be a fun DIY job