Some "REAL" interesting antique Westinghouse Micarta

blades&grace

blades&grace

Joined
Dec 22, 2005
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814
Well I'm back to making knives after a long break. Two years ago I started building a new house and shop. They are now close enough to being completed that I can justify working on some knives...Woowhoo!

Here is my first project since being back in the saddle. It's a nearly completed 3 1/4" Zulu Spear shadow in ATS34. The interesting part of the project was some Micarta that I found in my fathers machine shop. He has been a machinist since the mid 1960's in Bloomington Indiana. This stuff was obtained from the Bloomington Westinghouse facility in the mid 70's. According to him it was used as some kind of heavy walled conduit. It"s an amber yellow paper based Micarta that's approximately 5" in diameter and has a 1/2" thick wall. I only found a 2' long piece of it though:(. I slabbed it into scales and it shows an amazing "Grain like" pattern due to it's circumference. I know the Iphone pictures do not it justice. Pretty cool find if I do say so myself. Has any one else seen this stuff?

Thanks Brent Cramer

P.S. This was worked with all the precautions that I could manage... Full face respirator, ventilation at grinder exhausted outside the shop and a charcoal filtered blower.

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I'm glad you worked this with precautions. A lot of the antique micarta is built with asbestos fibers - and can be a real hazard. Newer stuff is almost all cotton based, but you never know about the old stuff. Pretty, but precautions are in order...

Beautiful stuff!

TedP
 
I've worked with that stuff before. It kind of looked like a slice of smoked Gouda, I thought about putting some on the table as a joke.

My fines from machining looked like scrambled eggs

That amber color turns dark after a while. In a year it will probably be brown again.
 
That looks pretty good. Nice knife to.
Gene
 
I work tearing down a warehouse full of westinghouse equipment, if you want some sheets of it feel free to let me know and I'll set some to the side. Its relatively worthless to some of the equipment buyers. I had no idea it was micarta.
 
turk.919 said:
I work tearing down a warehouse full of westinghouse equipment, if you want some sheets of it feel free to let me know and I'll set some to the side. Its relatively worthless to some of the equipment buyers. I had no idea it was micarta.
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Oh dude, we gotta talk...

...I'll come out there with an old 3/4 ton and load 'er up...
 
Be worth a shot ,automotive clear has UV protector in it. A flattener can be added if no gloss is your desired effect.
Eddie
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
Oh dude, we gotta talk...

...I'll come out there with an old 3/4 ton and load 'er up...
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Email me some contact info and I'll get up with both of you guys, seriously. When I am out there the next time I'll make sure to toss it in a box for ya'll. I had wanted to see how you make knives anyway.
 
Oh yeah I would definitely be interested in that old micarta. I will send you my info and even pay shipping. Thank you in advance.
Brion
 
the machine shop that I work in has some micarta in smaller pieces. We use it with polishing compound on a lathe to polish the interior of round parts, it is ver soft micarta from what I have seen, I don't know if this is the same stuff or not, but figured I could throw it out there. if anyone knows the difference in the 2 I would love to know lol, I love learning new stuff.
 
There are many kinds of the stuff. The older stuff is out there but it's dirty and doesn't come in nice square sheets. It's bolted to old machines and stacked in corners of places covered in a 1/2" of dust. I've even heard of guys finding sheets of it in old tool rooms being used for shelving. Ive been on a lot of wild goose chases (This may be one, no offence Turk but I've heard that line before and have been disapointed). The old paper stuff is hard and makes great scales but you must take safety precautions when working it.
 
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blades&grace said:
There are many kinds of the stuff. The older stuff is out there but it's dirty and doesn't come in nice square sheets. It's bolted to old machines and stacked in corners of places covered in a 1/2" of dust. I've even heard of guys finding sheets of it in old tool rooms being used for shelving. Ive been on a lot of wild goose chases (This may be one, no offence Turk but I've heard that line before and have been disapointed). The old paper stuff is hard and makes great scales but you must take safety precautions when working it.
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This place was shut down in the 60's, and the sheets are in a machine that was a huge emergency power arrester. I'll get pics if you want, if not I'll send it to Nathan.
 
Sounds great Turk. I'm in if there's enough to go around. The kind of place your describing is exactly where you would expect to find it. Ill PM you!
 
LMK if you guys need copper or aluminum big-ass chunks too. I am out there on a semi-regular basis and can toss stuff in my truck as I tear it down.
 
Like this, I by no means am trying to hijack the thread, I think this is cool because I have access to stuff it seems like yall could use. If so, lemme know.
 
It would be very cool if you'd offer some of this stuff on the for sale section of Bladeforums! Interested? I bet a lot of folks would like a crack at some of this stuff.
 
I get it for free and my supply will eventually diminish so I can't become a dealer, I hate to charge anyway. If interested parties will email me maybe I can send out lists as I get more. I don't want to get bombarded though, the offer was originally for the above posters, but that is not to say I can expand or work out a barter system.
 
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