My Fiddleback Friday river trip.

Nice pics man, I bet you guys had a great time there! I sure will be glad to see the green here again.
 
Hi Joe,

It looks like a very nice family outing! :thumbup: And coupled with two beautiful FBF knives...couldn't be better! Thank you for the thread. :)

Sincerely,
Mark
 
Wow, that looks awesome man. Im planning a cross country trip with my wife next year, this might be a stop
 
maw said:
Hi Joe,

It looks like a very nice family outing! :thumbup: And coupled with two beautiful FBF knives...couldn't be better! Thank you for the thread. :)

Sincerely,
Mark
Click to expand...

Thanks man. The Ladyfinger is perfect. I'm really, really digging it.

dcycleman said:
Wow, that looks awesome man. Im planning a cross country trip with my wife next year, this might be a stop
Click to expand...

Cross country trip sounds like fun. Downieville is a great little piece of California's gold. The town is very old, has a ton of history and the people take pride in preserving it's nostalgia.
 
mistwalker said:
The Ladyfinger is a really nice knife, one of Andy's oldest designs.
Click to expand...

It really is a great design. I've never seen a ladyfinger quite like this one. There is a few things that stand out: the pommel is completely rounded, the handle has more contours than a standard Ladyfinger, it's said to be black micarta, but looking at the grain, it seems to me like its G10. When does Andy ever use black g10 for scales? It's an excellent piece and I'm glad I finally scored it.
 
Joe Duder said:
It really is a great design. I've never seen a ladyfinger quite like this one. There is a few things that stand out: the pommel is completely rounded, the handle has more contours than a standard Ladyfinger, it's said to be black micarta, but looking at the grain, it seems to me like its G10. When does Andy ever use black g10 for scales? It's an excellent piece and I'm glad I finally scored it.
Click to expand...

Andy uses a good bit of G10 actually.

Both of these are G10



This one is G10


And I'm pretty sure Thurin has a couple with black G10 scales as well.
 
That looks like micarta.

Okay, so my understanding is that micarta is a cloth material that is made rigid with plastic. G10 is basically fiberglass, no cloth. Where did I go wrong here?
 
Joe Duder said:
That looks like micarta.

Okay, so my understanding is that micarta is a cloth material that is made rigid with plastic. G10 is basically fiberglass, no cloth. Where did I go wrong here?
Click to expand...

Micarta and G10 are both phenolics that are made in similar ways. Micarta is usually cloth yes...linen, canvas, or burlap, but also paper sometimes. G10 uses a synthetic mesh in place of the cloth, and maybe a slightly different type of epoxy. In a way G10 feels more..."plastic-y" to me than micarta, but is structurally stronger.

Here in Thurin's knives, the Kephart is black G10, the Bushfinger is black micarta. G10 polishes up more shiny with use over time
IMG_3032_zps2e78585c.jpg~original
[/QUOTE]
 
mistwalker said:
Micarta and G10 are both phenolics that are made in similar ways. Micarta is usually cloth yes...linen, canvas, or burlap, but also paper sometimes. G10 uses a synthetic mesh in place of the cloth, and maybe a slightly different type of epoxy. In a way G10 feels more..."plastic-y" to me than micarta, but is structurally stronger.

Here in Thurin's knives, the Kephart is black G10, the Bushfinger is black micarta. G10 polishes up more shiny with use over time
IMG_3032_zps2e78585c.jpg~original
Click to expand...
[/QUOTE]

Thanks Brian. I understand the written part of it. Now if my eyes can decrypt the differences between the two, I'll be in great shape.:confused:
 

Thanks Brian. I understand the written part of it. Now if my eyes can decrypt the differences between the two, I'll be in great shape.:confused:[/QUOTE]

The mesh layers in G10 are much thinner than the layers in micarta. The thicker layers in the micarta make the "grain" more easily apparent in micarta than G10. See how wide the grain appears in Thurin's Bushfinger compared to the Kephart? The grain lines are a lot thinner and tighter together with G1O

See on this Kephart, the liner is natural canvas micarta, the scales are natural G10





It's hard to notice any grain in it at all in some lights, unlike natural micarta that takes on a rich wooden look as it ages and darkens






But get it in the right light and the grain can usually be discerned.
 
Joe Duder said:
It really is a great design. I've never seen a ladyfinger quite like this one. There is a few things that stand out: the pommel is completely rounded, the handle has more contours than a standard Ladyfinger, it's said to be black micarta, but looking at the grain, it seems to me like its G10. When does Andy ever use black g10 for scales? It's an excellent piece and I'm glad I finally scored it.
Click to expand...

The old Ladyfingers were more like that. More curves on the handle and rounder pommel.

Old:


New:


The old handles were more hand filling, the newer feel quicker and livelier in the hand. I like both and could really say which I prefer.

On my harder use knives I prefer the older more hand filling handles (I have big hands)

Old to newest (Camp) to somewhat illustrate what I mean about handle shapes evolving.
Hunter 3/16", Bushfinger 5/32", Recluse 5/32", Ladyfinger 1/8", Camp 3/16"

 
Last edited:
NoFair said:
The old Ladyfingers were more like that. More curves on the handle and rounder pommel.
Click to expand...

Yep, Andy's older handles are more rounded. In these pics you can see it too. The Ladyfinger (wood & Bolster) is an older one with more rounding. The Bushfinger (spearmint?) is an early model Bushfinger, and the Kephart (natural G10) is an early model Kephart. You can see where Andy's handles eveolved to have cleaner transitions into the pommels, with cleaner, more defined lines.



 
Great photos, thank you for sharing. The water looked beautiful.

Those black g10 handles really shine.
 
I owned that red maple burl Ladyfinger for a short while. My tuxedo ladyfinger seems way more contoured and rounded than the maple burl ladyfinger.

As far as the whole micarta, g10 thing goes, I'm still having a hard time distinguishing the two. I can definitely see (on the kephart pics) the difference between the micarta and G10. But I get confused when I'm told the tuxedo configuration's as well as Thurin's Kephart scales are G10 and not micarta. Looking at the pics of the Karda, F2, tuxedo Recluse, and even Mist's bolstered bushfinger, I would have bet $100 that those are all micarta and not G10. I guess it's one of those "You can lead a horse to water..." things.

Anyway, I'm thankful for you guys attempting to school the Duder and chiming in with all the pics.

Thanks guys.:thumbup:
 
Funny that you've owned my Ladyfinger after I sold it to the US and I own your (rather splendid) Hunter:D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top