What is Micarta?

[Tristan Trelaine]

What exactly is micarta? Or should I ask what is it made out of? I know it is widely used in knife handles, but is it strong enough to use in large handles, say in a two-handed sword?

 

[george tichbourne]

Micarta is a trade name for a group of materials made by laminating multiple layers of material such as canvas in a thermoset plastic resin under pressure to create a very tough water, impact, heat, and wear resistant block. Think of it as the precurser to fibreglass.

Materials used range from paper to linen, to canvas and possibly others

This material first appeared in the 1930's as an electrical insulator.


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george
www.tichbourneknives.com
sales@tichbourneknives.com

 

[tom mayo]

yes to the above....paper, linen, canvas, dont know of any others....laminated together with phenolic resin under pressure and heat.....used first for insulators (mostly canvas base) and later for lab countertops...exception..rag micarta...scraps from floor put into the press...i understand it was made mostly for some guy who wanted to make wheels out of it for his oily industrial factory floor carts

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http://www.mayoknives.com

 

[Tristan Trelaine]

Thanks for the explanation guys. But about how strong is it? Would it handle the stress of a sword handle?

 

[george tichbourne]

The canvas variety certainly would stand up as a sword handle, probably the others as well as long as you had a good solid tang.

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george
www.tichbourneknives.com
sales@tichbourneknives.com

 

[BCK]

If it is assembled properly, I can't think of why it wouldn't work just fine.
Micarta makes wonderful handle material.

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