Oiling Micarta

[Kvnlau7]

Hi knifemakers,

I own this micarta knife and I love it.
I just washed it the other day (just water) and on the black micarta the white fibers are showing up.
I've been told that oiling it with mineral oil should keep it look smooth and black.
But after handling the knife for a couple of days the white fibers are showing up again.

So i was wondering is there a way to keep it looking smooth and black? do i need to keep oiling it or do i need to let it soak the oil longer without touching it?

Also i have heard that sebum ( skin oil) also helps keeping the handle looking smooth
so if someone got a oily face you can just wipe the handle across your face and that should work too. ( sounds kinda gross to me)

Thanks for the replys

Kevin

 

[Kevin McGovern]

I use teak oil. Wipe on a good layer and let it soak for 15 minutes or so, then wipe off.

 

[jdm61]

CAREFULLY buff with a soft buff and black compound. You can do it with a variable speed drill in a vice with a wheel from Home Depot so as not to kill yourself with a 3750 RPM machine. Then spend the rest of the day getting the compound out of the nooks and crannies.

 

[Frank Niro]

I think that may be canvas micarta. That "look" is quite common with it. You may want linen micarta the next time.
Frank

 

[jdm61]

I think that may be canvas micarta. That "look" is quite common with it. You may want linen micarta the next time.
Frank

This is green canvas micarta. Note that it is actually kinda dark green as opposed to gray with a green tinge.

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

I don't think that's Micarta. The bubbles indicate to me that it's a cast material such as Shadetree. The fibers may not be as resin impregnated as regular micarta. The answer may be to return it to the maker, have it thoroughly cleaned with a solvent, loaded with some sort of a resin, and refinished.

We ran a bunch of this sort of material and ran into this issue. It's wonderful and interesting stuff (and not at all cheap), but it wasn't compatible with our process for this reason.

 

[Kvnlau7]

I don't think that's Micarta. The bubbles indicate to me that it's a cast material such as Shadetree. The fibers may not be as resin impregnated as regular micarta. The answer may be to return it to the maker, have it thoroughly cleaned with a solvent, loaded with some sort of a resin, and refinished.

We ran a bunch of this sort of material and ran into this issue. It's wonderful and interesting stuff (and not at all cheap), but it wasn't compatible with our process for this reason.

Bottom part is terotuf. but im talking about the bolster which is black canvas micarta.

 

[AVigil]

I think that looks great.
When I want all black I use G10

Canvas micarta tends to look like that and really can vary depending on what they actually used to make it.

 

[Geoff Flato]

That looks about how black canvas micarta does to me. The little bit of color/texture is what's interesting about it.
Linen micarta as Frank mentioned would have a bit less.
If you want just solid black, paper micarta has virtually no texture whatsoever.
A bit more buffing might make it less noticable, but I don't think you'll ever find a way to get rid of it entirely

 

[tmickley]

It's probably too late with the oil on it but maybe not, try using black leather dye and allowing it to soak into the fibers will knock down some of the white.