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Working Burlap Micarta Help!

K

KFU

Part Time Knifemaker, Moderator
Joined
Sep 10, 2007
Messages
4,255
Ok, this might sound like a stupid question but Ive never worked with Micarta before, only wood. I have this knife in progress for a buddy whos wife survived cancer. Ive sanded up to 120 and there are numerous dark patches and brown spots as well as open grain, I guess you would call it. I initially was going to sand up to 500 and stop but now am thinking I should go back down to 60 and start over. Will going back down in grit smooth it up and what are your finishing techiniques for this stuff?
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I don't know what's up with the discoloration, maybe you can take it down past that. I was recently working with some similar material and I wound up finishing at only 120 after bringing it all the way up to 800... it was the Crypto though not burlap, I finished my latest burlap at 800 I think.

Jeremy Horton makes some killer stuff with the shadetree buirlap.

Great looking knife by the way! I think it looks finished, lol.
 
all the home made stuff works differently but i would say clean and then back fill with CA then keep hand sanding
 
That is a great looking knife.

I suspect the discoloration is from the raw material. The jute can be inconsistently colored and the brown color comes out here and there. This is not an issue with the browns and darker colors, but the farther we get from browns and the lighter it gets, the more off-color character comes out.

320 grit then a scotchbrite belt makes for a nice finish,IMO (I think this how Andy Roy works it). Fill any voids with CA like Butch says.
 
I get discoloration in micarta when I am running the belt to fast - it gets hot and burns. I get that really easily in the lighter colors and have to go back and sand it out.
I try and keep it super cool when sanding it - then buff it really softly also to get that wet finish look.
Great looking knife!
 
When I have used burlap, I find that using very sharp sandpaper helps to get all the fuzzy spots off. Once it is completely free of the fuzzy ends at one grit, step to the next grit again using very sharp sandpaper. Rinse and repeat. Good luck.

-Mike
 
Sharp sandpaper. 220 or 400 or so then grey scotchbrite pad, then white (I don't use a belt here, just a minute of elbow grease). Scotchbrite burnishes down the matted fibers that are fraying (microscopically). Then oil it. I don't fill any pinhole voids. Part of the material IMO. If there is a large void I try to put it off the handle, if not possible, I fill with ca glue.
 
Thanks guys. I think it was from using the belt. I took a little more off, hand sanded up to 220 and finished with the scotchbrite pads like Andy suggested. It looks really nice!
 
And took very little time to complete also. I love using that burlap.
 
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