This is ceramic belt ? If yes why you use it on Micarta ? There are belts designed for grinding wood , find them and you will be pleasantly surprised ................
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(NOT)Tufnol micarta
- Thread starter Seedy Lot
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I only use ceramic belts, works for me and has for years.
I have tried other belts and when they hit vandium steel they seem to quickly give up life.
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Seconded. Aluminum oxide belts work better for me on wood and Micarta than ceramic and zirconia belts. Zirconia belts tend to have thick backing which leaves deeper gouges than I’d like. Ceramic belts are too hard for the Micarta and wood to “break” the abrasive and expose fresh ceramic.
Just what I’ve noticed from my very limited experience.
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Did your drill feel like it was sucking the material up onto it?
With brass, I'll slightly dull my drill bit with a stone
I know it's early performance wise, but other than drilling, would you feel ok recommending it?
With brass, I'll slightly dull my drill bit with a stone
I know it's early performance wise, but other than drilling, would you feel ok recommending it?
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The way that blows out looks exactly like some GPO3 that I’ve worked with (which is a thermoset polyester/fiberglass). I’m fairly convinced that what you have is a polyester composite.
I have used a decent amount of Teortuf which is a polyester resin and cloth, this stuff is
different.
No drill bit sucking. Hard but not grabby.
I think this Tufnol is decent material that is pretty easy to grind, question is will the color hold and will there be a grime factor like Terotuf experiences. I do like the color options and price was good as long as one orders enough to cover the over the pond shipping.
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Gorgeous.. Everything about it.
Any issues sanding/finishing it?
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Tufnol has been available in South Africa for many years and many of our earlier custom knife makers used it with great success in the 80's and 90's.
I had a number of early customs from the 80's with it. It was tough, strong and had all the properties one would expect from micarta.
I had a number of early customs from the 80's with it. It was tough, strong and had all the properties one would expect from micarta.
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But....... Is it Still available, and still sought out for use by your maker's there, Or do they prefer other types of micarta?
I don't wanna waste a hundred bucks on goofy colors, if it's Crap???
So far, it looks to be ok
It's not readily available Here in the USA, so it looks new and exciting.
This is All good information, thank you.
No issues. I find it easier to sand than Micarta as it is harder and does not gum up sand paper and belts the same way. With that said it does wear down sand paper much faster than Micarta.
The Tufnol does not have the same grab your skin grip that Micarta has but is better than G10.
Thanks, sounds good. I have some, gonna try the orange later this spring.
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It…is…not…Tufnol.
Continuing to refer to the multi colored material sold and labelled by Ground Flat Stock as “Micarta” as “Tufnol”, when Tufnol is a brand name for laminates used in industry that is not available in pretty colors is plain wrong and misinformation.
This is the bottle green material. See….it is sold as Micarta
This is what Tufnol looks like. See, this is labelled as Tufnol, and describes its origin.
Learn about real Tufnol materials here.
tufnol.com
tufnol.com
Continuing to refer to the multi colored material sold and labelled by Ground Flat Stock as “Micarta” as “Tufnol”, when Tufnol is a brand name for laminates used in industry that is not available in pretty colors is plain wrong and misinformation.
This is the bottle green material. See….it is sold as Micarta
This is what Tufnol looks like. See, this is labelled as Tufnol, and describes its origin.
Learn about real Tufnol materials here.
Tufnol laminates - Spider diagram - Tufnol
tufnol.com
Tufnol Laminated Fabric Grades | Tufnol
Tufnol Polyester glass mat laminates are produced by combining polyester resin with continuous roving glass mat. glass mat reinforced polyester resin laminated plastic
tufnol.com
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It…is…not…Tufnol.
Continuing to refer to the multi colored material sold and labelled by Ground Flat Stock as “Micarta” as “Tufnol”, when Tufnol is a brand name for laminates used in industry that is not available in pretty colors is plain wrong and misinformation.
This is the bottle green material. See….it is sold as Micarta
This is what Tufnol looks like. See, this is labelled as Tufnol, and describes its origin.
upload pic
Learn about real Tufnol materials here.
Tufnol laminates - Spider diagram - Tufnol
Tufnol Laminated Fabric Grades | Tufnol
Tufnol Polyester glass mat laminates are produced by combining polyester resin with continuous roving glass mat. glass mat reinforced polyester resin laminated plastic
I contacted GFS about this, we will see what they say.
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Great.
I tried to get an answer to this question via email some weeks ago and got no reply. I hope you have more success than I did.
If the Tufnol company has made 15 special color runs, in an unusual thickness, just for GFS, then I will be over the moon to be proved “wrong”. I have that in inverted commas because the material is not being sold under the Tufnol brand and I could argue that we are talking brand vs source. I would be willing to concede this because Tufnol industrial laminates are fantastic quality and if they applied that quality to coloured laminates it would be great news, worthy of shouting from the roof tops. The fact that GFS are not plastering the story of how they got Tufnol to make them exclusive laminates, or even non-exclusive, suggest to me that the only connection is that two types of Tufnol laminate got bundled under one menu with 15 colors of laminate from someone else.
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I have no idea if it is still available here. I know of no makers using it.
It was used here in the 80's and early '90's as it was readily available to local makers. If my memory serves me correctly the original product was made for kitchen counter tops.
C_Claycomb
You are correct. The colored micarta is just listed under the Tufnol section on GFS. I feel the way they have it listed is deceptive as one of the reasons I bought the material is that I thought it was Tufnol.
Here is a quote from GFS.
"Thanks for the email. We don’t sell any coloured Micarata as Tufnol - only the Tufnol branded products are sold as Tufnol (Whale Brand and IP/13). The coloured Micartas are simply sold as Micarta (They are manufactured by another Industrial Company though), in much the same way we sell UltreX G10 branded as such and other manufactures G10 which is not branded."
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S
Seedy Lot
I tried a different tack and phoned Tufnol UK to enquire whether the custom material mentioned on their site extended to colors, as per the Ultrex material. Very nice man in their sales team said they do only natural colors, no reds, blues or greens. Bummer
After making a bit of an ass of myself being so adamant, I didn’t want to be wrong and look more of an ass….but it would have been cool if they had made colored material!
No hard feelings???
Easy mistake to make based on the GFS page if you hadn’t encountered the brand before.
Tufnol cotton/phenolic is good….if you like khaki. While it starts as an almost yellow khaki, it darkens noticeable with UV. The Carp type, which has a fine weave cloth and is kinda £££, darkens to quite a nice warm brown, eventually.
It will be interesting how those brilliant colors on your knives hold up with time.
ATB
Chris
I tried a different tack and phoned Tufnol UK to enquire whether the custom material mentioned on their site extended to colors, as per the Ultrex material. Very nice man in their sales team said they do only natural colors, no reds, blues or greens. Bummer
After making a bit of an ass of myself being so adamant, I didn’t want to be wrong and look more of an ass….but it would have been cool if they had made colored material!
No hard feelings???
Easy mistake to make based on the GFS page if you hadn’t encountered the brand before.
Tufnol cotton/phenolic is good….if you like khaki. While it starts as an almost yellow khaki, it darkens noticeable with UV. The Carp type, which has a fine weave cloth and is kinda £££, darkens to quite a nice warm brown, eventually.
It will be interesting how those brilliant colors on your knives hold up with time.
ATB
Chris