Wood, mircata, g10

[Justin Schmidt]

Don't worry this isn't a VS thread or anything like that. Just want some input from experienced makers. I have some hackberry I was gonna use for scales. Just wondering what you prefer between the 3 and why? I'm in Florida so humidity is a pretty big factor. I personally like the looks of a wooden handle but that's just my thinking what yours? What do your customers prefer? Thanks

 

[Greenberg Woods]

Hackberry is a pretty wood. If you are set on it, I would have it stabilized. As you may guess, im a pretty big supporter of wood.

In damp climates many woods shine. Stabilized woods are obviously stable and wont rot, but a lot of exotics will also preform very well. Thing Rosewoods, osage orange or ebony.

 

[jmcdaniel0]

I read on here somewhere on how to stabilize wood using a big pickle jar, and a brake bleeder pump. I would suggest looking it up. It seems like a really simple process once you get everything you need gathered. Personally, I use micarta on knives that are going to be hard workers. However, with that said, any stabilized wood will work. I really like Iron wood, but it is a pain to work with lol.

 

[Justin Schmidt]

Hackberry is a pretty wood. If you are set on it, I would have it stabilized. As you may guess, im a pretty big supporter of wood.

In damp climates many woods shine. Stabilized woods are obviously stable and wont rot, but a lot of exotics will also preform very well. Thing Rosewoods, osage orange or ebony.

Yeah that was the plan. I make bows so I have a bunch of hackberry laying around that I have cut down. Glad to know wood preforms well in humidity thank you for the heads up.

 

[Justin Schmidt]

Jm: since I'm new at all this I'm just going to have the pros take care of it. Might be more expensive but at least there is no worries and I know it'll be done right

 

[jmcdaniel0]

Jm: since I'm new at all this I'm just going to have the pros take care of it. Might be more expensive but at least there is no worries and I know it'll be done right

Im a newbie too brother. I only buy stabilized woods, if I use wood. I havent tried stabilizing my own either. I read through the thread and it seemed pretty straight forward. I will eventually get around to it. Im still working on perfecting my damascus billet making. I want to start making my own damascus pommels and bolsters and the like.

there are many good suppliers out there.

 

[Justin Schmidt]

Im a newbie too brother. I only buy stabilized woods, if I use wood. I havent tried stabilizing my own either. I read through the thread and it seemed pretty straight forward. I will eventually get around to it. Im still working on perfecting my damascus billet making. I want to start making my own damascus pommels and bolsters and the like.

there are many good suppliers out there.

Damascus bolsters with some black mircata scales and ss corby bolts would look pretty sweet together

 

[JBC69]

For a knife that will be used, G10...followed closely by Micarta (not the DIY stuff). It's inexpensive, tough as nails and impervious to most chemicals and moisture.

Though, my wood handled knives definitely sell better--a gorgeous piece of curly Koa or Redwood burl practically sell the knives themself! I won't use a piece of wood unless it has been professionally stabilized.

 

[Busto]

Knives travel either through sales or relocation and a handle that was fine in its natural habitat might not hold up as well in a different climate. I rehandled a very nice hunter for a customer who relocated to the desert southwest very hot and dry and found the wood had shrunk away from the guard and tang. Now this knife was a safe queen so he didn't recognize the issues until the damage was done. You can't really appreciate the qualities of stabilized wood until you see the effect of time and climate on a natural piece of wood. When you put your Mark on a knife you should not have to worry about material failure do to mother nature. Stabilized wood Good Stuff!!!!

 

[Justin Schmidt]

Knives travel either through sales or relocation and a handle that was fine in its natural habitat might not hold up as well in a different climate. I rehandled a very nice hunter for a customer who relocated to the desert southwest very hot and dry and found the wood had shrunk away from the guard and tang. Now this knife was a safe queen so he didn't recognize the issues until the damage was done. You can't really appreciate the qualities of stabilized wood until you see the effect of time and climate on a natural piece of wood. When you put your Mark on a knife you should not have to worry about material failure do to mother nature. Stabilized wood Good Stuff!!!!

That's a very good point busto. How do you feel about mircata and g10?

 

[Busto]

valknut,

I use both G-10 and micarta both extremely durable and easily worked. My preference is Canvas Micarta for hard working camp knives and large choppers the texture makes it grippy and can be easily cleaned with mild soap and water. For presentation grade knives with mirror or satin finish Black paper Micarta really shines when buffed. G-10 very durable like Micarta it's a heavier denser material weighs a bit more than micarta and shines up better than canvas micarta. If I could only pick one to work with it would be one of the Linen Micarta varieties it seems to fall between Canvas and G-10 nice sanded pattern not overly glossy but much nicer than canvas.

Mike

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I read on here somewhere on how to stabilize wood using a big pickle jar, and a brake bleeder pump. I would suggest looking it up. It seems like a really simple process once you get everything you need gathered. Personally, I use micarta on knives that are going to be hard workers. However, with that said, any stabilized wood will work. I really like Iron wood, but it is a pain to work with lol.

While you will find you-tube videos and old posts on this, it is a pretty poor technique that doesn't really stabilize the wood. Trust me, a pint of Minwax, acetone, a mason jar, and a brake bleeder is far from the equipment needed to stabilize wood.

It is best to have your wood stabilized by one of the professionals using real mono-acrylic resins. The Cactus Juice treatment is somewhere between the two in quality. It isn't as good as having it done by K&G or WSSI, but better than Minwax.

Even better and probably more affordable for the hobby user, is to purchase already stabilized wood from One of the many knife suppliers and wood sellers. The exchange has many sales threads on great wood that is stabilized and ready to go. Ben Greenburg, Mark at Burl source, and several other members here sell top grade handle woods.

As to which is better, wood will have problems that synthetics don't Micarta is one of my most used handle materials. It is easy to shape and polish for even the novice, and safe to work with ( you should wear a respirator with all grinding and sanding, anyway). CF is more dangerous to the lungs and skin and needs better equipment and skills. I don't use it in my shop anymore. It isn't worth the risk and trouble.
G-10 is a bit safer than CF, but I don't use it often for similar safety reasons. The glass fibers have to be carefully extracted and everything cleaned up well.

 

[jmcdaniel0]

While you will find you-tube videos and old posts on this, it is a pretty poor technique that doesn't really stabilize the wood. Trust me, a pint of Minwax, acetone, a mason jar, and a brake bleeder is far from the equipment needed to stabilize wood.

It is best to have your wood stabilized by one of the professionals using real mono-acrylic resins. The Cactus Juice treatment is somewhere between the two in quality. It isn't as good as having it done by K&G or WSSI, but better than Minwax.

Even better and probably more affordable for the hobby user, is to purchase already stabilized wood from One of the many knife suppliers and wood sellers. The exchange has many sales threads on great wood that is stabilized and ready to go. Ben Greenburg, Mark at Burl source, and several other members here sell top grade handle woods.

As to which is better, wood will have problems that synthetics don't Micarta is one of my most used handle materials. It is easy to shape and polish for even the novice, and safe to work with ( you should wear a respirator with all grinding and sanding, anyway). CF is more dangerous to the lungs and skin and needs better equipment and skills. I don't use it in my shop anymore. It isn't worth the risk and trouble.
G-10 is a bit safer than CF, but I don't use it often for similar safety reasons. The glass fibers have to be carefully extracted and everything cleaned up well.

Im glad you chimed in Stacy. I was wondering about the effectiveness from home stabilization. I started with canvas micarta. It is tough as nails, and easy to work with. It is my go to material for my camp knives and such.

It is good to see someone preaching shop safety. I didnt start out wearing respirators at all. I got a pretty bad lung infection from inhaling fibers from a handle I was sanding down. That changed my tune pretty quick.

 

[Justin Schmidt]

Thanks for the tips guys. Always great getting advice from you Stacy. I never really planned on the home stabilized route anyway. I'll probably just order some paper, linen, and mircata scales and see what I like best. Trying

 

[Willie71]

I have a cactus juice setup, because I have a lit of spalted poplar and rainbow poplar near me. (On my property, and free!) Shipping cross border us a pain and out dollar is low now. If you want to do it at home, expect to spend between $300.00 and $500.00 to get going. You can stabilize soft to medium density woods. With the addition of a pressure pot (another $150.00) you might get away with some denser woods. You can buy a lot of nice wood for $500.00. It can be done, but you lose the advertising benefit of saying stabilized by K&G for example. It's much like scrap steel. Scrap steel can be tested by an experienced smith, and can make a fine knife. It's unfortunately the beginners that end up trying to use scrap steel, or homemade stabilizing/casting. It takes a bit of trial and error to get it right, and experience to know what works or not.

 

[Justin Schmidt]

Yeah just seems like alot of hustled for just a few knives. K&g is like 14 bucks a pound so that's a whole lot cheaper

 

[Kentucky]

I like woods, desert ironwood probably being my favorite but right up there with it is curly maple. Since we do so much period work we use a lot of curly maple and finish it in the traditional sense with aqua fortis.. Honestly Ive used a ton of non stabilized wood in the past with no problems but generally its a denser more oily wood..
I like g10 and micarta but I wont lie, I hate finishing micarta with a passion..I mean I just downright despise it..I like it and I really like the way canvas micarta looks when finished right.. though you could go the easy way and just bead blast it after 180 grit and call it a "no slip grip"..Some folks like that but I don't like the feel of it myself..reminds me of a mushrats tail..

 

[Justin Schmidt]

I like woods, desert ironwood probably being my favorite but right up there with it is curly maple. Since we do so much period work we use a lot of curly maple and finish it in the traditional sense with aqua fortis.. Honestly Ive used a ton of non stabilized wood in the past with no problems but generally its a denser more oily wood..
I like g10 and micarta but I wont lie, I hate finishing micarta with a passion..I mean I just downright despise it..I like it and I really like the way canvas micarta looks when finished right.. though you could go the easy way and just bead blast it after 180 grit and call it a "no slip grip"..Some folks like that but I don't like the feel of it myself..reminds me of a mushrats tail..

Can you elaborate on properly finishing mircata? I figured you just sanded ando possibly buffed it

 

[Greenberg Woods]

For a grippy texture, dont count out woods. Woods like Wenge or Black palm give a super grippy texture.

 

[Fiddleback]

Don't worry this isn't a VS thread or anything like that. Just want some input from experienced makers. I have some hackberry I was gonna use for scales. Just wondering what you prefer between the 3 and why? I'm in Florida so humidity is a pretty big factor. I personally like the looks of a wooden handle but that's just my thinking what yours? What do your customers prefer? Thanks

Each has plusses and minusses and you should really gain experience with each. Micarta and G10 are the most stable. Micarta is almost indestructable. G10 handles being washed (kitchen) knives the best. You can make either very grippy with a little sandblasting. Wood is light and can be quite grippy too, plus you just can't beat the chatoyance of wood (deep shimmering look). I like using shadetree burlaps too and when polished you can get a little chatoyance out of them as well. They are the lightest and grippiest of the phenolic materials IMO. Stabilized woods are more resistant to moisture, but they will move in heat just as bad as unstabilized wood. Plus, stabilized wood is very slick when wet.