Why is the black canvas micarta called black when its not??

jeepin

jeepin

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I cant stop thinking about this. Why does Busse call there black canvas micarta black when its not?, the black G10 is actually black.
Im very confused. :confused:
 
Most micarta needs a bit of moisture to show it's true colors. Some folks oil their, others like it gain oil naturally through use. It usually looks off color or white due to the resin and the shaping of the handle.
 
jeepin said:
I cant stop thinking about this. Why does Busse call there black canvas micarta black when its not?, the black G10 is actually black.
Im very confused. :confused:
Click to expand...

Yeah WTF? Why not call it twilight grey, or dusty pavement. I feel so misled. :)
 
because fabric is made of a series of strands of cotton fibers which are dye'd to their intended color. While there are some naturally occurring colored cotton fibers and a few experiments with making naturally occurring high saturation colors like black and blue, at this point they are not market viable. So with canvas micarta you have a series of exposed fabric strand ends exposed to air, caused by the fabric wearing away slower then the pockets of resin surounding them. while they are soaked in hardened resin, if you take a single strand of that hardened string and bend it a lot, the canvas will move while the epoxy cracks and gets knocked away from the cotton fibers. This is one of the properties that makes canvas micarta as amazing as it is, it can flex before complete fracturing into multiple peices. Once you have this exposed, de-resin'd piece of cotton fiber, it is open to the environment as far as bleaching and color washing is concerned. you end up with a bunch of tiny low saturation color spots on an otherwise black(ish) slab of resin soaked canvas.

Black paper is very dense, and the the paper fibers don't really fray or bend like canvas strands do so the edges remain crisply soaked in resin and in their manufactured high color saturation state.
 
just get it wet... it turns black nicely.. but yes, when you buy it, gray/chalky pavement is about right.
 
Maybe polishing micarta makes a difference. The black canvas micarta on my Bark River knives seems much "blacker" than on my Busses. Not that it makes any difference to me. It's just something I noticed.
 
Both black canvas micarta. One is slightly more used than the other...
Picture2091.jpg
 
I like that black can mean any shade of grey when you actually get. Use it and you'll see it go black, oils from your hands will work just as well as mineral oil !
 
Just soak it in black leather dye (from Tandy or similar place) and it will be dark black and stay that way.
 
The company is not misleading anyone. Research Micarta and you'll understand it's manufacture.

Black Canvas Micarta = BLACK phenolic resin impregnated layers of canvas sheets. The canvas fibers are exposed to more surface area from the tooling giving it the grey appearance.:thumbup:

Wet/oil a slab or take a scale off and look at the back. My guess is that the greener "black" Micarta is either canvas of a greenish shade (I've even seen Busses with a real yellowish canvas showing through) or a kitchen sink of left over resin colors that are used to impregnate it with.
Knife manufacturers are not likely the largest consumers of Micarta...so there is probably quite a few batches of left over colors that get tossed together. I believe Jerry once mentioned that the "Camo" (aka "Snake Skin") was originally a result of such a quagmire fluke blend of resins that is very difficult to repeat consistently. I imagine "Tiger" was a similar fluke.

Canvas Micarta is stronger and more durable (yet probably cheaper) than the paper or linen grades. The denser the fiber and more complete saturation the resin gives will provide a visually true color as you see in G10.
 
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