- Joined
- Jan 27, 2012
- Messages
- 1,247
Why, herringbone tweed, of course! 
My first attempt at home-brewed micarta. I wanted a coarse material but had no canvas and blue denim has been done too many times. I found an old overcoat made from wool herringbone tweed, and alternated layers with cut-up chino pants material. The resin and hardner were ancient from when I built wooden sea kayaks, and although it eventually hardened up, it took about a week instead of overnight!
The initial block got me enough material for a Tweener, a pair of "regular" Becker scales, and there's enough left for maybe another pair of Tweeners.
Definitly a learning curve to this stuff. Used the spare pair of scales from a Tweener to trace out the shape, then used a scroll saw to rough the shape, a belt sander to finish the edges, then a router table to radius the edge. Sanded, added a clear-coat of (new) epoxy to make sure the fibers were all sealed, then wet sanded.
Fat-handled, like God intended. No need for orange spacers here!
My original grind had much more pronounced indentations very similar to the stock scales. But the depth broke through the laminations and it looked kind of silly, like white topo lines on a map. Next time I'm going to pass on the laminations.
So there it is. An early example of Tweener micarta. Very fashionable...
My first attempt at home-brewed micarta. I wanted a coarse material but had no canvas and blue denim has been done too many times. I found an old overcoat made from wool herringbone tweed, and alternated layers with cut-up chino pants material. The resin and hardner were ancient from when I built wooden sea kayaks, and although it eventually hardened up, it took about a week instead of overnight!
The initial block got me enough material for a Tweener, a pair of "regular" Becker scales, and there's enough left for maybe another pair of Tweeners.
Definitly a learning curve to this stuff. Used the spare pair of scales from a Tweener to trace out the shape, then used a scroll saw to rough the shape, a belt sander to finish the edges, then a router table to radius the edge. Sanded, added a clear-coat of (new) epoxy to make sure the fibers were all sealed, then wet sanded.
Fat-handled, like God intended. No need for orange spacers here!
My original grind had much more pronounced indentations very similar to the stock scales. But the depth broke through the laminations and it looked kind of silly, like white topo lines on a map. Next time I'm going to pass on the laminations.
So there it is. An early example of Tweener micarta. Very fashionable...
