Staining Micarta

B

Boriqua

Joined
Feb 4, 1999
Messages
655
Is it possible to stain micarta. I have a new knife with maron micarta scales. I have had another knife done with the aroon micarta but the color was deeper and a bit darker. My first thought was to put some leather stain to it and wipe it off. Should give a nice streaky black to red color but I dont know if it will stay or just rub off immedialtly. I also thought that maybe my darker maroon scales were deeper because they were polished in some way where the lighter ones look as is. IS there a wasy to polish the micarta for a deeper darker color.
Alex
 
Micarta should not absorb any stain. It's mostly phenolic resin, and completely waterproof. I think staining would be a waste of time.

Your lighter piece may have a rougher finish than your darker one, maybe even on a level that isn't very obvious to the touch. When it's rough-ground, Micarta is quite light in color (black appears light gray, maroon appears pink). As it's sanded to finer and finer grits, the color deepens and teh shine increases. It's possible to make black micarta appear fairly polished while still grayish, but if it's taken to a really fine grit and thoroughly buffed it will be a deep, shiny black. Maroon acts likewise (some I have almost looks black at very high levels of finish). What your seeing may be the result of a slightly rougher finish, or it may really just be a variation in the color.


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-Corduroy
"Why else would a bear want a pocket?"

Little Bear Knives
Drew Gleason:
adg@student.umass.edu
 
If the micarta is bead blasted, then you can make it look darker. Trick is to just oil it. Hand oil, will even make it look darker. To make it look light again, just clean well, then use rubbing alcahol on the surface, to degrease

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Lynn GriffithMy website
GriffithKN@aol.com


 
This is true, but the dark color only lasts as long as the oil. If you thoroughly wash the knife, it will appear light again, until it's re-sprayed or handled heavily. Patrick at Spyderco showed me that they use some sort of shoe polish type black spray on their bead-blasted G-10 handles to get the black color.

-Drew
 
Are the knives different ages? Micarta will change color some over time. Some of the prettiest micarta handles were on some Barry Wood folders I saw a couple of years ago. Mr. Wood told me that they started out as natural canvas micarta. The micarta layed around his shop for at least 20 years before he decided to use it. It had by then mellowed to a nice light brown color, with slight variations in the color. It was really pretty and unique. I guess you don't want to wait 20 years for your micarta to darken though!
wink.gif


Paul Davidson
 
What would happen if you did a tanic acid bath? That's one way of simulating that kind of aging. Where dye would just bead off, a mild acid would have more penetrating potential. All I'd worry about is it damaging the strength of the material.
Just a thought...

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Oz

"When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt."
- Henry J. Kaiser
 
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