Simple Knifemaking: A Beginner’s Guide To Building Knives With Basic Tools by Nicholas Tomihama

Author:Nicholas Tomihama
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2017-01-07T23:00:00+00:00

Micarta makes for a beautiful and very tough handle

That’s why I usually use synthetic materials like acrylic or composites like Micarta and stabilized wood when helping someone build their first knife. While these materials are usually more expensive than wood, they are worth the extra expense for the added stability.

In this chapter, we’ll be making our own composite handle scales using cloth and resin. From there, we’ll treat the slabs just like any other material. The material we’re making is similar in appearance to Micarta, a specific composite product made with phenolic resin embedded in fibers.

Simple composites can be made with a laminating resin and fiber or a casting resin and almost anything. Almost any fiber that will bond to resin will work including paper, polyester, cotton, heavy denim and canvas, linen, burlap, wood veneer, fiberglass, carbon fiber, and others. Other composites can also be made by embedding or compacting other materials like wood, seeds, beans, pods, shells, and other items in resin.

The texture of the finished composite depends on how coarse or fine the cloth or material used, as well as how it’s layered. Different colors and textures can be layered and material can be twisted for even more possibilities. Material can also be pressed around the tang of a knife before it sets to conform to the tang. This is ideal for push and hidden tangs, as well as for full tangs with uneven surfaces. Cloth or rope can also be soaked in resin and wrapped around a knife’s tang and then shaped once cured.

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