Shrinking liners

SBranson

SBranson

Joined
Oct 29, 2006
Messages
2,912
I recently did my first full tang knife with micarta scales and black liners and the liners have shrunk a little in places and created a lip.

A friend of mine glues the liners to the scales and then does the assembly the next day but I figured to try it all at once. I can't imagine that that is the problem unless the heat from shaping the handle caused them to shrink.

Any ideas?

It happened over a day or so so I am a little confused.

Thanks.

you can see it here

StuartEDC_7.JPG
 
If that's the vulcanized fiber spacer material, I'm not sure there's any way around that sooner or later. It's just the nature of that stuff. Not very stable in my experience.

I've given up on that stuff and switched to thin g-10 from Alpha knife supply. I know I'm not alone on this. Good luck with it.
 
Yep. Vulcanized fiber is a knife destroyer.
 
countryboycansurvive said:
If that's the vulcanized fiber spacer material, I'm not sure there's any way around that sooner or later. It's just the nature of that stuff. Not very stable in my experience.

I've given up on that stuff and switched to thin g-10 from Alpha knife supply. I know I'm not alone on this. Good luck with it.
Click to expand...
Ditto. Alpha Knife Supply has stuff thinner than you could imagine.
 
Same happened to me on a few knives I will no linger use that fiber material.
 
Hmm, I've used vulcanized fiber liner a number of times witout the problems described. I epoxy the liner to the scale, after dimpling the inside of the scale for glue adhesion. Clamp it, let it cure, then attach to the tang. I've probably just been lucky, but I'd appreciate knowing why the stuff would or could shrink.
 
I think it shrinks from getting wet then drying thats my theory anyway.
 
I know someone else who attaches the liners to the scales first but I figured to try and skip the extra day of curing time by doing it all at once. Next time I will try attaching them first and see if that helps.

I figured it was the heat from shaping the handle causing it to shrink.
 
I don't think that it is a matter or when you attach the liners, but rather that they expand and contract due to moisture and do so at a different rate than the micarta. I switched to G-10 liners from AKS a while ago and haven't experienced any of the problems that I did with vulcanized fiber.
 
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