Nightmarecarta

David Mary

David Mary

pass the mustard - after you cut it
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Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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Jul 23, 2015
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You know the stuff. Burns easily, loads belts almost instantly, and a fresh belt is no longer fresh after two passes.

What are your tips and tricks for shaping handle with this stuff? I already use rubber belt erasers but I’ve got a few types of micarta that, once it loads, it’s not going anywhere.

I typically shape with 36 grit AO followed by 150 and then hand sanding.

How can I make life easier?

Thanks!

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David Mary David Mary I like zirconia belts for dealing with micarta. I run 60, 120, hand finish. I don’t think it loads up as much and I also use rubber cleaner blocks. My 2 cents…

Best,
John
 
Same here. I started using zirconia belts just because no reason, and they seem to work pretty well with canvas micarta I get from AKS. 36 zirconia, 120 blaze ceramic, hand sand.
 
Zirc. 40 grit, 80 grit scalloped Klingspor, 120-600 grit Pops SuperNova scalloped ao belts. Wet sanding from 120 up. Hand sanding is done wet too.

DuraGold Longboard AO for the hand sanding after the belts.

Iwasaki files should also work well on it too
 
I tend to use my 3x21 hand-held sander in a vice, when shaping certain micarta, for this reason. Slower speeds and easier to control shaping. Also, files/rasps with my wire bristled file cleaner close at hand
 
got a piece of drill bit in my vise grips and jam that into the belt and follow up with an eraser with it gets funky up in there
 
I Cut the profile out with a bandsaw and do the shaping with a fast moving (60%-70% on the vfd) 36-40 grit belt on my largest small wheel and a very light touch. I don’t have trouble with loading or burning using this method and rubber usually gets the belt looking almost new. I go straight from there to a slower 220-240 grit belt with a very light touch to smooth everything out after that. From that point its files and hand sanding.
 
Oh the dreaded blue Ultrex! I bought 2 square feet of the lovely blue hell and I have been making a point to use it for non knife related projects were I don't have to sand it.
 
I am not nearly as experienced as the people above but I do my rough shaping with a router then go straight to hand. It's surprising how close to finish you can get with just the router and the right shape bit. My router is variable speed and I do have to play with the speed and feed a bit. And try not to cut off a finger
 
Sometimes putting thin CA glue on the G Carta or Damagrip handles helps when sanding/shaping them to keep the surface less fuzzy.
 
If you haven't tried scalloped belts, you need to. 1x60 scalloped belt in 240 grit is where I start after roughing out with 60 grit. The scalloped belts remove material quicker than you expect and don't get hot. Then 1x60 scalloped in 320 and 400. After that, it's hand sanding with small pieces of 320 at the sink with water to remove the small facets/flat that you'll get with a belt sander.

It's a big jump in grit, but it works well for me. A scalloped belt in 120 is really too aggressive if you're not careful. I've been using Red Label belts, so that's what I'm basing the above on. I put the belts on pretty loose and they don't have a problem tracking. I also rough out with 60 really pretty close to final shape, so I'm not needing to remove a lot once I start with the scalloped belts.
 
I used blue Ultrex micarta once.... never again. I've been using the remaining chunk to hold down kydex sheets while they heat up on my electric griddle, that's all it's good for.
 
I am intrigued by this blue Ultrex stuff. I need to try it yes?
What works best for me is to hog on a 40 or 60 grit Deerfos Bora 7 ceramic, used one is fine.
Then I shape on the slack platen with scalloped yellow Klingspors, first 80 then 180 grit.
After that handsand 120 or 240 for matte finish. If going for buffed finish: handsand 320 after the 180 scalloped belt, then 600 and to the buffer with brown tripoly compound. For extra gloss, use a gloss compound after that. I use Menzerna compounds, they have a very clear program for every material you need to sand and buff.
 
The jeans micarta material I use is like this, as is most of the linen micarta. I switched to 50 grit AO belts after close profiling the scales on the ol' portaband , I slow the belt down to about 30% on my VFD and that seemed to help with the burning. I follow up with files and then paper (120 grit, 220, 320.....). Just bought some scalloped belts and they are for sure a game changer for soft curves.

Usually at 320/400/600 grit hand sanding, I wet sand to eliminate the surface fibers.
 
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