Anyone here make their own Micarta?
I went to JoAnn fabric today with my wife and didn’t even complain!

4 yards of three different colors and fiberglass resin (from Lowe’s).

I made a couple 3x9” molds today and hopefully will get around to making some Micarta by the end of this week or next.

I really like the look of the Rag style, but I’ll just bet that’ll be the one that gives me fits.
Of course I’m not making knives but I have a couple that need new handles and some bottle openers as well that I want to add them to.

Anyone here make their own ?!?! Pics ?!?



*Rag style Micarta (pics from the web)







* molds

That looks awesome Grumpy! I'm not into knives but my son and I watch Forged in Fire and have started see some different styles of handles and those look great.

I had to look up the meaning of micarta. I gave someone a djembe drum whos shell was made out of Kevlar in a resin. Guess that is a form of micarta.

Micarta is a brand name for composites of linen, canvas, paper, fiberglass, carbon fiber or other fabric in a thermosetting plastic. It was originally used in electrical and decorative applications. Micarta was developed by George Westinghouse at least as early as 1910 using phenolic resins invented by Leo Baekeland. Wikipedia

Yeah, for us laymen it encompasses almost any material in resin and it’s morphed into a lot of “things” in resin.
Oddly enough wood fibers in resin is still called plywood it seems.
But I’m amazed how I get started in one hobby and it branches out into so many other directions.
It’s tough to get anything accomplished when you want to DIY as much as possible.


I’ve just bought a bag full of these that are 1/2”-3/4” thick .
Perfect for handle blanks.

You aren’t gonna believe this...
Scotch Bright Micarta!!!





* sometimes it starts with a coffee can forge.....

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with. Micarta has always been my favorite non-natural handle material for knives, I have several.

Bob Loveless pioneered the use of Micarta, his favorite being the Green/Brown Canvas.

OK thats cool!

I had to google it and the first video that came up was making some with Burlap! Nice.

I am a DIY guy!
Through & through... love the trial & error.
So obviously this appeals to me.
But when I came across the different styles of Micarta & the fact you can make it yourself, had to try.
I’ll post up pics of any success or failures.



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This message has been edited. Last edited by: GrumpyBiker,

Cool! I'll be watching this thread.

Off topic, got Octoberfest?

I've been slowly working through an old linen dress, one 4"x6" square at a time, for lacquering and such (old linen works best for spirit varnish touchup, cleaning old wood, etc). And have one piece left with its flowered embroidery - it was a wedding dress from 2003.

Sounds like a micarta chisel handle would be a great purpose!

I decided to give it a go today.
As something different I’m attempting some Scotch Brite Micarta.

I decided to make a mold that can be disassembled should the resin seep past the wax paper.
I also used floor paste wax to coat the inside of the mold to work as a releasing agent.
I found a scratch pad that’s 1/2” thick.
Way better than the thin ones as it gets thinner as it’s compressed.
I should be able to get a 3/8” thick piece of Micarta if it turns out.
Supposedly this type doesn’t need much pressure so I’m using a 4lb Wareood cross peen hammer head as a weight.
I also tinted the resin to more of a black in hope that it’ll make the blue stand out better.

I’ve seen some pretty snazzy denim micarta made from old blue jeans
It cones out with a nice pattern
I think the micarta really looks good when you sand some finger grooves or rounded areas to uncover a lot of layers

Big fan of micarta for knife scales. Have a Randall w/ black micarta and a Bark River with green handles.

Looking foward to how this turns out.

Cool.

Check out Marlin (fishing) Lure building materials. There are tons of really unique things you can put in it. A friend of mine makes lots of marlin lures and uses many different things for the resin heads.

Well the Paste Floor Wax worked great !
After pealing / breaking the wax paper & resin that squeezed out & ran over the top of the mold, the chunk of Micarta popped right out !
It doesn’t look like much as of yet but it will look much better after shaping & polishing.
So far I’m pleased .

I’ll be out in the motorhome this weekend but I did get some fabric cut up.

I'll be interested to see how your scotch brite micarta turns out once you get a chance to work with it. I love the look and had planned on doing some scales that way when I get a little further along in the amateur knife making hobby.

Decided to try some traditional layered Micarta this morning.

Green & Black

Turns out using a brush was a wasted effort.
I used a 3/4” x 3/32” length of wood to spread it on.
Used cotton felt for these.
I’ll post the results tomorrow.

The options seem limited only by one’s imagination.
That blue scouring pad version looks freakin’ cool...looks like lapis lazuli.

Can’t wait to see what else you come up with.

Thanks for sharing.

My fear of having to tear apart the 3”x9” molds was unfounded.
The floor wax made it come out without any issue.
One actually came out with the lid .

I now have three blanks to experiment with.











YouTube Video link to the removal from the mold.

https://youtu.be/o8qtxoz7dL0



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