Which micarta is better

J.McDonald Knives

J.McDonald Knives

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im wanting to know what the difference between the linen micarta and the canvas micarta. which one is better for tactical knives? also what is the difference in the durability between the linen and the canvas? im thinking that the linen micarta might look better for a tactical knife. if anyone has any pictures of knives of the canvas and the linen micarta handles please post them so i can see what they look like when shaped and finished. thaniks.
 
PimpinSquee said:
im wanting to know what the difference between the linen micarta and the canvas micarta. which one is better for tactical knives? also what is the difference in the durability between the linen and the canvas? im thinking that the linen micarta might look better for a tactical knife. if anyone has any pictures of knives of the canvas and the linen micarta handles please post them so i can see what they look like when shaped and finished. thaniks.
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They are equaly as durable, all things being equal, for instance if you sand both to a 400 grit finish,The canvas will make a grippier handle because the canvas fibers are larger than the linen fibers.

From an asthetic perspective the linen will show more but finer thiner concentric lines in the finished surface due to the fact that there are more layers of linen in two equal thickness pieces. The linen will finish up darker in color given the same sanding treatment than the canvas because the ratio of fiber to resin. In other words if you finish one piece of black linen and one piece of black canvas to 400 grit the canvas will look gray-er, the linen will look black-er (Neither of those are real words I think)
 
thanks. seeing as how the linen is cheaper and tends to retain its color better i might go with the linen micarta. of course im going to make a knife that on one side is linen and the other side os canvas so that when a customer makes an order they can choose. in your opinion which do you prefer? linen or canvas?
 
I handle most all my restaurant cutlery in canvas micarta. I do fillet knives in linen micarta. I only use paper micarta for things like wedding cake knives.
Stacy
 
PimpinSquee said:
of course im going to make a knife that on one side is linen and the other side os canvas so that when a customer makes an order they can choose. in your opinion which do you prefer? linen or canvas?
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Ha ! LOL ! Good one squee, you've got a sense of humor to eh ? ;) How are you coming with the book Stacy sent you ? My favorite is "olive canvas micarta with a red liner behind it" (used to be called green canvas micarta). Has anyone else noticed that with the appearance of all the new colors that some are being "reclassified" :confused: :) I'm happy to see you progressing squee. Keep her up and before you know it you'll be well on your way ! :thumbup: :)
 
ive been reading the books. i finished one the first day i got it. since then ive been working on $50 knife shop. i love the book. its given me many good ideas and a bunch of info that is really helping me learn alot about knife making. i got so enthused from the book that i went to home depot on my way back from moms house on sunday and bought me a sheet of 3/8"x2'x4' plywood and 4 8' 2x4 studs and also grabbed some scrap 2x4's from a local construction site that they had in their trash pile. i made the legs on my bench 3' and first screwed the legs to the board. i faced the boards so that the wide part was facing towards the length of the table. after i screwed them in i measured out spacers to go inbetween the legs for the width and the length. then i added supports to the legs 2' from the top of the table so that the legs dont move. i figured that if later on the table is too tall i can just shorten the legs. i wanted to make sure i had more than i might need for the height of the table. i have another sheet of 3/8" plywood that i might cut to size and screw it to the top of the table to make it twice as thick, later on after i read more im going to mount my grinder and my drill press and just play around with some scrap steel. im thinking about just using a one brick forge and my mapp gas torch to do all my tempering. either that or find a friend to temper the blades for me. but i would rather learn by doing it with a gas forge. my main interest of knives are hunting knives and tactical. well mostly tactical. i guess thats what i get for being raised in a military family. i downloaded a copy of autocad 2007 and made about 10 designs already. had each one done in about 30 mins or less. ill post links to them after i convert them into pictures so that i can get yalls opinion on my designs and what i need to do differently. i havent used autocad in about 4 years so it was fun to just get back into it. that reminds me i need to find the drawing i did of an F-111 Ardvark jet i did in highschool.

any other books i should try and find? also i went to see johnny stout and don morrow about a week ago. learned alot from them. love morrows filework.
 
At one time I found the spec sheets for the different micartas online, and linen is actually the toughest of the cloth or paper types.
 
:) If you are bead blasting the micarta, I think the linen works better, if not the canvas does give a better grip.
 
 
PimpinSquee said:
in your opinion which do you prefer? linen or canvas?
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I like what ever I can find inexpensively. I buy industrial cuttoffs. Last year I got a 36"x48"x.500" piece of black linen and a 14"x36"x.750" piece of black linen for $180 maybe $35 to have it shipped. (That's about $700 bucks worth) I have a bunch of the natural colored canvas and I like it but I would like it better if it weren't so yellow. I am fooling around with ways to tint it with analine dies.

I know a plastic fabricator in Virginia who sold me 16"x50"x.250" black canvas for 35 shipped and he threw in 3 similar sized pieces of .125" Kydex because I sent a few people to him to buy Kydex. The guy had 3 pieces of the micarta that size and I could kick myself for not buying all three! I am now down to less than a sq. foot of that stuff.
 
email me with how to contact him to get the micarta and kydex because i will be making alot of sheaths out of kydex. before i buy kydex in bulk im going to experiment with the different sizes first.
 
PimpinSquee said:
ive been reading the books. i finished one the first day i got it. since then ive been working on $50 knife shop. i love the book. its given me many good ideas and a bunch of info that is really helping me learn alot about knife making. i got so enthused from the book that i went to home depot on my way back from moms house on sunday and bought me a sheet of 3/8"x2'x4' plywood and 4 8' 2x4 studs and also grabbed some scrap 2x4's from a local construction site that they had in their trash pile. i made the legs on my bench 3' and first screwed the legs to the board. i faced the boards so that the wide part was facing towards the length of the table. after i screwed them in i measured out spacers to go inbetween the legs for the width and the length. then i added supports to the legs 2' from the top of the table so that the legs dont move. i figured that if later on the table is too tall i can just shorten the legs. i wanted to make sure i had more than i might need for the height of the table. i have another sheet of 3/8" plywood that i might cut to size and screw it to the top of the table to make it twice as thick, later on after i read more im going to mount my grinder and my drill press and just play around with some scrap steel. im thinking about just using a one brick forge and my mapp gas torch to do all my tempering. either that or find a friend to temper the blades for me. but i would rather learn by doing it with a gas forge. my main interest of knives are hunting knives and tactical. well mostly tactical. i guess thats what i get for being raised in a military family. i downloaded a copy of autocad 2007 and made about 10 designs already. had each one done in about 30 mins or less. ill post links to them after i convert them into pictures so that i can get yalls opinion on my designs and what i need to do differently. i havent used autocad in about 4 years so it was fun to just get back into it. that reminds me i need to find the drawing i did of an F-111 Ardvark jet i did in highschool.

any other books i should try and find? also i went to see johnny stout and don morrow about a week ago. learned alot from them. love morrows filework.
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Your forge would be used for hardening, annealing and normalizing, but not tempering. Tempering can be done in your kitchen oven. Most knife steels can be tempered easily this way, unless it is a stainless type that requires higher temperatures than an oven can get up to.
 
i read about that part in one of my books $50 knife shop. i do own a toaster oven and i can use that. it just only goes up to 450 degrees. i just hope that i never have to temper anything hotter than that. if i have a blade that doesnt fit in the oven im going to wait until i goto moms house and use her oven.
 
Squee, the designs are cool. The Star would probably need to be cut out with a water jet or something like that. Just start out simple plain blade and slabs.:thumbup: ;) :D
 
dont worry i will. if i made that star i would cut out most of it with a bandsaw and then do everything else with a file. that star would be friggin sweet to make and throw. i would laugh if i show it off at shows and get orders for it. i dont even know what i would be able to see it at? even if i do etching and stuff. if its made very well and stuff how much do you think i could sell one for? price range anyone?
 
PimpinSquee said:
dont worry i will. if i made that star i would cut out most of it with a bandsaw and then do everything else with a file. that star would be friggin sweet to make and throw. i would laugh if i show it off at shows and get orders for it. i dont even know what i would be able to see it at? even if i do etching and stuff. if its made very well and stuff how much do you think i could sell one for? price range anyone?
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Squee, make one first and see how many hours and what materials you go through. I am going to bet you will only make one.:D
 
PimpinSquee said:
dont worry i will. if i made that star i would cut out most of it with a bandsaw and then do everything else with a file. that star would be friggin sweet to make and throw. i would laugh if i show it off at shows and get orders for it. i dont even know what i would be able to see it at? even if i do etching and stuff. if its made very well and stuff how much do you think i could sell one for? price range anyone?
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In my years of martial arts training (age 12-28) I came across 3 throwing stars that worked even half arse. The true stars were not used much and were of simple design. If you really want to make stars I would work with rough shapes till you found one that works well before bothering to file bevels or do any finishing work. I think you will find overly complex designs fly horrible. Thats not to say that such a good looking star may not find a customer who wants a good looking star instead of one to throw. I bet IG is right about the time though, tryin to bandsaw around those humps and then file to shape would give me ulcers.
 
Ilovetoolsteel said:
I like what ever I can find inexpensively. I buy industrial cuttoffs. Last year I got a 36"x48"x.500" piece of black linen and a 14"x36"x.750" piece of black linen for $180 maybe $35 to have it shipped. (That's about $700 bucks worth) I have a bunch of the natural colored canvas and I like it but I would like it better if it weren't so yellow. I am fooling around with ways to tint it with analine dies.

I know a plastic fabricator in Virginia who sold me 16"x50"x.250" black canvas for 35 shipped and he threw in 3 similar sized pieces of .125" Kydex because I sent a few people to him to buy Kydex. The guy had 3 pieces of the micarta that size and I could kick myself for not buying all three! I am now down to less than a sq. foot of that stuff.
Click to expand...

would you also be willing to send me that name, if i can fidn kydex and micarta local or quazi-local that would be sweet
-matt
 
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