- Joined
- Jan 15, 2006
- Messages
- 758
I recently tried my hand at making some denim micarta. It was a learning experience as I expected it to be but I am pretty happy with the results.
I put the full tutorial about the process and the lessons we learned on my website at http://www.cartercrafts.com/micarta.htm but an abbreviated version is below.
My friend and fellow knifemaker Cliff Fendley and I decided to try our hand at making some denim micarta handle material. This was our first attempt so we knew it would be a learning experience, and it was.
After doing some research, we decided to use West Systems 105 epoxy resin and 206 slow hardener. The slow hardener would gives us around 20-30 minutes working time before it set up. There is also an extra slow hardener but our local supplier does not carry it because it requires an additional $20 in hazardous material fees to ship it.
From what we read, the West Systems epoxy seemed to be one of the best available and is commonly used for building boats. It is expensive at $52.00 for a quart from our local supplier. In addition, we bought the $12.55 mini pump system which is calibrated to give the correct 5:1 mix of resin and hardener with equal number of pumps from each can.
We wanted to make a few pieces of denim micarta so we cut our materials. I planned to make a 5x7" piece about 1/2" thick with alternating front and back layers of blue jean denim (lower left). I also planned to do the same thing with black denim (lower right) but we ran out of epoxy before we got that far. Cliff made a 1" thick 5x5" piece from faded blue jean (top pile) and a 1" thick 1x7" piece from alternating layers of tan and black denim which he twisted before pressing..
Our plan was to use Cliff's large welding table and clamp several pieces of plywood extending off of the table so we could clamp a top piece of wood to press the layers while they set.
Having never attempted this before, we planned to pour the epoxy onto a layer, squeegee out the air bubbles and excess epoxy, and then do the next layer. We planned to wrap the whole thing in wax paper to prevent sticking to the wood. We found a couple of old Bondo spatulas to squeeze out the air bubbles.
We quickly learned our first lesson. Pouring the epoxy directly onto the material is not an efficient method. We changed to pouring the epoxy into an aluminum backing pan and saturating the layers of material in the pan before putting them onto the wood block. This method allowed me to keep mixing epoxy and pouring it into the pan as needed while cliff saturated the pieces and transferred them to the press block. I would then squeegee each layer as it was put on the block. I would soak up the excess run-off epoxy with the next piece of material to be used and put it into the pan for Cliff.
This assembly line approach worked very well and we were able to quickly and efficiently saturate and stack the layers with very little waste.
We placed another pan under each press to catch drippings. As you can see, there wasn't much waste.
After we had the material saturated and stacked, we folded the wax paper over it and clamped a top piece of plywood to press it. We clamped at four corners and measured the height of each corner as we tightened the clamps to make sure we had uniform thickness across the piece.
Cliff checks a piece and wipes up some overflow.
The thinner stack of blue jean material. This is 18 layers of material giving us about 1/2" thickness.
The thicker stack of faded blue jean material. This was 35 layers material giving us about 1" thickness so it could be split down the middle to get approximately 1/4" handle slabs.
See "My first attempt at making denim micarta Pt 2" for more:
I put the full tutorial about the process and the lessons we learned on my website at http://www.cartercrafts.com/micarta.htm but an abbreviated version is below.
My friend and fellow knifemaker Cliff Fendley and I decided to try our hand at making some denim micarta handle material. This was our first attempt so we knew it would be a learning experience, and it was.
After doing some research, we decided to use West Systems 105 epoxy resin and 206 slow hardener. The slow hardener would gives us around 20-30 minutes working time before it set up. There is also an extra slow hardener but our local supplier does not carry it because it requires an additional $20 in hazardous material fees to ship it.
From what we read, the West Systems epoxy seemed to be one of the best available and is commonly used for building boats. It is expensive at $52.00 for a quart from our local supplier. In addition, we bought the $12.55 mini pump system which is calibrated to give the correct 5:1 mix of resin and hardener with equal number of pumps from each can.
We wanted to make a few pieces of denim micarta so we cut our materials. I planned to make a 5x7" piece about 1/2" thick with alternating front and back layers of blue jean denim (lower left). I also planned to do the same thing with black denim (lower right) but we ran out of epoxy before we got that far. Cliff made a 1" thick 5x5" piece from faded blue jean (top pile) and a 1" thick 1x7" piece from alternating layers of tan and black denim which he twisted before pressing..
Our plan was to use Cliff's large welding table and clamp several pieces of plywood extending off of the table so we could clamp a top piece of wood to press the layers while they set.
Having never attempted this before, we planned to pour the epoxy onto a layer, squeegee out the air bubbles and excess epoxy, and then do the next layer. We planned to wrap the whole thing in wax paper to prevent sticking to the wood. We found a couple of old Bondo spatulas to squeeze out the air bubbles.
We quickly learned our first lesson. Pouring the epoxy directly onto the material is not an efficient method. We changed to pouring the epoxy into an aluminum backing pan and saturating the layers of material in the pan before putting them onto the wood block. This method allowed me to keep mixing epoxy and pouring it into the pan as needed while cliff saturated the pieces and transferred them to the press block. I would then squeegee each layer as it was put on the block. I would soak up the excess run-off epoxy with the next piece of material to be used and put it into the pan for Cliff.
This assembly line approach worked very well and we were able to quickly and efficiently saturate and stack the layers with very little waste.
We placed another pan under each press to catch drippings. As you can see, there wasn't much waste.
After we had the material saturated and stacked, we folded the wax paper over it and clamped a top piece of plywood to press it. We clamped at four corners and measured the height of each corner as we tightened the clamps to make sure we had uniform thickness across the piece.
Cliff checks a piece and wipes up some overflow.
The thinner stack of blue jean material. This is 18 layers of material giving us about 1/2" thickness.
The thicker stack of faded blue jean material. This was 35 layers material giving us about 1" thickness so it could be split down the middle to get approximately 1/4" handle slabs.
See "My first attempt at making denim micarta Pt 2" for more:
