which Liners?

D

danool13

Joined
Jun 12, 2013
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hi, im new to knife making, ive made a few blades and have caught the proverbial bug. i am ordering some handle material and am interested in putting liners on a couple knives. my question is which material should i get g10 or vulcanized fiber? and what thickness would look good and hold up best for a woodcraft/buschcraft knife.i will be using a variety or handle materials as well from cherry, cocobolo, goncalo alves micarta and g10. thanks for any help
 
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Mason,
i have looked all over on bf and the web and not have not found the info i am looking for. most of what i find is for lock liner's and im making a full tang fixed. you guys here on the bf have helped me alot i rarely post but have been reading this forum for about a year now and have learned so much about knifemaking its rediculous. if there is a thread on this topic allready i apologize but i cannot find it. if you can attach it, or point me in the right direction i would appreciate it
 
i have been looking at there selection and thats one of the major considerations. im not sure whether to go with the thin .036 or the thicker .110 any suggestions or issues with going with a thin or thick liner. also am i correct in the assumption that you epoxy the liner to your scales before you shape and attach to the blade
 
For a liner, between the handle and the tang, thinner is better.
The .100 stuff is used for spacers in the bolster and butt area.
 
ive noticed some makers fiddleback forge and shing for example using thicker than average liners on there knives. i wasnt sure if its just a style or if there was a reason more makers went with a thinner liner. i may just order a .088 and a .036 sheet, put them on some knives and see which works better. just thought if there were some opinions and or reasons out there for the difference before i spent the extra money on material i may or may not want to use again.
 
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I don't like the vulcanized fiber liners. I have a few sheets of it left because I won't use it. The stuff absorbs a bit of liquid. I do like the finished edge, but it's nothing better than g10.

About the only reason I can see using it over g10 is price, but I don't think it's a big enough difference to warrant the hassle.
 
I don't think using fiber liners is a hassle and I've never had the problems everyone claims too. The epoxy absorbs into the fiber and makes moisture absorption impossible. I've used it on hundreds of knives and have never had any problems. Murray carter has used it on thousands of knives and he gets good results too. I think if anyone has problems with the fiber liners it's due to too much clamp pressure or improper prep work because I've had nothing but success with it.
 
I should clarify hassle as having the edges mushroom out, not absorption issues. My technique is probably lousy though. I don't have any problems with g10. It's also possible that the fiber liner material that I bought (years ago) is of inferior quality.

Op, if you want to try it out shoot me an email with your address and I'll send over what I have left.
 
I typically use G-10 as well. Personally, I don't like the way that the "fish paper" works with files and rasps - and it is relatively soft and can get dinged up at the most inopportune times.

At Blade Show this year, I stumbled across some 0.125" paper micarta scale material. This is too thick for typical liners, but with a couple of passes through the planer, I got them down to 0.0625" and have used them a few times. Even though it isn't colorful (basically ivory or black...sometimes natural), it is a great material to work with and produces a very nice, solid look which complements some woods well.

TedP
 
Strigamort said:
I should clarify hassle as having the edges mushroom out, not absorption issues. My technique is probably lousy though. I don't have any problems with g10. It's also possible that the fiber liner material that I bought (years ago) is of inferior quality.

Op, if you want to try it out shoot me an email with your address and I'll send over what I have left.
Click to expand...

I didn't mean my post to be disrespectful or a shot at you. I just wanted to voice my good experience with the fiber liners as many others speak badly about them. Hope you didn't take my post the wrong way :)
 
I use G10 9.8 times out of 10. It flat out works, with no worries about what might happen a decade or three from now. Thickness and/or color are completely dependent on individual taste and what's available on the market.

It takes a very special circumstance or a very specific custom order to convince me to use anything else for liners.
 
Haven't used G10- how well does it bond to epoxy (using GFlex these days)?
It seems a little slippery, but if it works it works.
 
Thanks for the input guys. And thanks for the offer strig but I think you helped convinced me to go with the g10. Ill call AKS this weekend and put an order in ill probably get a few different colors and thicknesses to see what I like and go from there. I'm also thinking of ordering a couple bars of there 1080+ steel. From what I've read it sound like a simple steel as far as heat treat and working but with more complex alloy properties. Would this steel be ok for a newb I've only used 1095 as far as known steel?
 
Good choice. :)

I switched to G10 several years ago. Chuck has any thickness you might want. For a full tang liner, I'd recommend something in the 0.020 - 0.035" thickness range if you want a "scales with liners" look.

The thicker stuff looks really cool, but IMHO moves it into a composite/laminate handle category. Absolutely nothing wrong with that! It's just a different style. :)

The 1080+ will be good for you. FWIW- I'd recommend it to a newer maker way before 1095.
 
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