Vulcanized Fibre is Sorry

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OK. I'm sick of using vulcanized fibre. It expands and contracts and leaves tang exposed and pins able to be felt with the finger. I'm going to dump it on everything except customer orders. I've ordered some micarta liner material that is 1/32" thick, but its only available in a few colors. Anyone know of something stable and thin that makes a good liner?
 
TKS has some liner material that is a plastic - they refer to it as "engraving stock" - might be worth checking into further. I've never used any -- wondering how well it bonds when gluing up.
 
Thanks!! That AKS stuff is interesting!
 
Andy, Isn't that the idea? That it contracts and expands with the weather, so that your handle material doesn't crack?
Please let me know if I have the wrong idea.
- Mitch
 
Troop said:
Andy, Isn't that the idea? That it contracts and expands with the weather, so that your handle material doesn't crack?
Please let me know if I have the wrong idea.
- Mitch
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As far as I know, liners have absolutely no functional benefit (and several potential drawbacks) -- the only benefits I know of to the knifemaker are that they allow one to get by with not quite perfect scale to tang/liner/bolster fit (especially handy on full integrals) and they're a detail some collectors are looking for.
 
zerogee said:
As far as I know, liners have absolutely no functional benefit (and several potential drawbacks) -- the only benefits I know of to the knifemaker are that they allow one to get by with not quite perfect scale to tang/liner/bolster fit (especially handy on full integrals) and they're a detail some collectors are looking for.
Click to expand...

You're kidding me...that's it??? I thought that it actually served a "mechanical"
purpose. Wow...why bother then. Something else to come apart with hard use.
- Thanks!
 
Troop said:
You're kidding me...that's it??? I thought that it actually served a "mechanical" purpose. Wow...why bother then. Something else to come apart with hard use.
- Thanks!
Click to expand...

That's the way I see it -- you've just added an extra glue surface to fail - and in the case of vulcanized fibre liners, they're structurally weaker than many of the usual scale materials - plus being more hygroscopic than many of them. Vulcanized fibre liners actually *increase* the stress on scales (and both glue surfaces) by expanding and contracting with moisture.
 
Wow, I never thought about the fiber spacers taking on moisture! I just had a knife come back cause the scales separated from the bolster on both sides! He used the knife to clean a bison so I would imagine that he had that thing soaked in water and soap to get the fat and blood off of it. Who knows, maybe the wood moved on it's own a little and the spacer helped it along.

has this been common knowledge for some time now? I too might look into the G10 from AKS for a replacement for this repair.
 
I agree with Andy too.

I've noticed the same things on my knives. I'm going to check out the g-10 option from alpha.

They do nothing but add contrast. They won't really hide a poor fit either.
 
gixxer said:
has this been common knowledge for some time now? I too might look into the G10 from AKS for a replacement for this repair.
Click to expand...

Some guys have been trying to soak the fiber liners/spacers with epoxy or superglue and hoping enough penetrates to make them fairly stabilized in use. Don't know how really effective this has been though.
 
Another source for thin micarta's is McMaster-carr. Search for garolite.
 
The composites from Chuck work great. Before that, I was using kydex that I surface ground thinner (just super-glue it to the chuck).

I think some guys may TRY to use them to cover a poor fit, just like the colored epoxies, but the bottom line is a poor fit will show. You can't hide it.
 
Andy,

I have been using the G-10 from AKS and like it.
The only problem I have had is that the red is a nice bright red until you glue it to wood,
then it looks brown.

Greg
 
G. Shahan said:
Andy,

I have been using the G-10 from AKS and like it.
The only problem I have had is that the red is a nice bright red until you glue it to wood,
then it looks brown.

Greg
Click to expand...

Well, thats what I was thinking would happen. What about if you sandwich it between black layers? I like having the spacers to play with, but to hell with folks thinking I can't get my pins flush.
 
Andy,

I don't mean to be dense but are you saying that you've experienced fiber spacers contracting and expanding enough to make pins no longer flush? I've seen spacer material move enough to become uneven with the tang, but I've never seen it effect scales being level with the pins.
 
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