fibermascus or denim scales wanted or trade

[jeff Pena]

Hello, I was wondering if anyone had any small pieces of fibermascus scales for sale or any denim micarta scales. I am looking for colors or than plain black the sizes needed are at least 1/8" thick and at least 3 1/2" to 4" long, width only needs to be 1". Would pay through Paypal, or if anyone is looking for some great 1/8" drill bits I have some cobalt stubby drill bits that go through steel like butter, maybe a trade ?? Thanks, Jeff

[Dwane Oliver]

Jeff , you could make some . Go read this post , http://www.knifenetwork.com/forum/sh...mascus+micarta
looks fairly easy , then you could get the colors you want.

[Joel]

Here's some photos of my first efforts to make denim micarta. I followed his directions except that I only used 9 layers of denim, which gave me 1/4"scales, and I didn't twist the cloth since I wanted just a layered effect. I did alternate sides of the denim(old wore out bluejeans)since they are different colours. Couldn't find marine resin, but did locate (at Lowe's) Elmer's All-Purpose fiberglas Resin which is 100% waterproof, non-shrinking etc.
I mixed 11 ounces with the hardener and then clamped the whole mess between wax paper and boards using my #3 Pipe Vise and two large clamps. Let it dry from early yesterday afternoon until this morning. Came to the following conclusions after rough grinding that scale:
A. Wash your cloth before using. Those old jeans had a lot of stains on them from being worn while weeding/cultivating. I thought I had avoided that area when I was cutting the cloth, but you can still see a couple of small stains that I hadn't even noticed. The Resin tends to magnify little things like that.
B. The stuff is as tough as Iron!! literally. Couldn't cut it with my regular hacksaw, so used my saber saw with a coarse blade. The stuff grinds harder than micarta.....micarta grinds like butter compared to it. Wears out a belt in no time. More difficult to shape than brass or N/S. Plus side is I'm not worried about strength here. The piece you see in the photo's was ground using belts from 60 to 600, then put on a worn 600 belt with white rouge. Overall I'm pleased with my first try at this. Gonna keep at it.

[Tony Graves]

Hey Joel

Now that is a very cool way to give the project a personal touch.

Just how much pressure did you put on the clamps? Did you really try to cinch it down, or just until you feel resistance and see squeezeout.

Like I really need something else to make this hobby MORE labor intensive.

Great look. I want to see the finished product on your knife.

Tony

[Joel]

Yeah it is kinda intriguing. I cinched down as tight as I could, actually.Didn't want any excess in there to create possible "pockets". Heh, I'm sittin' at the TV and reducing a bunch of old jeans and wore out flannel shirts into handle material. Been thinkin'I could make my own G-10 also if I could figure out a way to colour that fiberglass cloth I used on my truck. Couple of my throw rugs are gettin'the evil eye also. Actually, I think I'm goin'to stop at our local fabric store and pick up some canvas(bought it there before), and try messin'around with both fabric dyes and/or epoxy dyes; see what happens. When I'm not huntin'or making knives that is. Might just avoid cabin fever this winter.

[Cadillac Forge]

cool results how much $$ you think you have in 1 set of nice scales??

[Joel]

Well, the resin cost me $14.00 for 32 oz. I also spent about $2.50 at Walmart for some cheap measuring cups and some aluminin foil cake pans (8 X 8 and 13 x 9)to use a mixing containers and, the large one, to do my layering in. I used 11 0z of the resin, which is not quite half, so say I used $6.00 worth. Everything else I had; the jeans were among a bunch with worn out Knees that were laying in the bottom of my closet. I never through anything out. The 10"x 4"oblong spead 1/2 inch from compression. After I cut the one chunk off just for testing purposes, that leaves me 6 scales at 1.5 x 4.5 inches. Plenty long enough for 99% of my knives. So, in this case the total was $6.00. I'm not going to factor in my time....didn't take that long anyway. Considering ordering a set of Micarta scales from one of the Knife Supply Houses can run anywhere from around $4.50 to $11.00(not exact here, but close), I basically get two sets of scales free. To me that's not really the point though, and I'm sure you understand that. It's a chance to create my own unique handles...which is worth.........???? Plus, it's fun. Only thing I should caution about, andI should have put this in my original post, is that the fumes from the resin are powerful and dangerous. Don't use this stuff without an adequate ventilation system. In my case I did the actual layering on a board on top of my kitchen stove with the fan on Hi, then moved everything down to my basement workshop, and left the area. If I had been going to do other work at that time in my workshop, I have rooms in the house that I don't use much and would have stuck it into one of those with the door shut. I'd probably would have to open the window the next morning to air it out, but no big deal. It's cold in PA this time of year, and I 'm looking forward to spring when I can at least do the actual layering /setup out on my porch.

[jeff Pena]

Thanks for the response guys, I began to think about ways to make some scales and was at a auction this weekend and they had a old lard press with a wheel on top for cranking it down. Well i bought it and took it apart used everthing but the bottom pot, I cut four boards 8" by 12" and I am going to use two of them for making a scale press and the other 2 boards I am going to use for a kydex press, need to buy some 1" thick foam and I think it will work really good. It cranks down fast and has alot of pressure to it. If your not sure what one looks like goto Ebay and type in lard press, it's the ones with a crank wheel on top....

[Dragon cutlery]

i started playing with this stuff as soon as my G1 epoxy showed up i also have a huge pile of jeins siting around doing nothing and a book binding press i could never find a use for till now


http://lecherouslizard.com/ladder.jpg

this is my second try (didnt know how much epoxy i would realy need) its 2 color ladder patern light blue and green


http://lecherouslizard.com/ladder2.jpg

and this one shows the unground side a little its all at 80 grit i belive and im planing on using it on a folder for my self so i can see how it holds up over time also needs to be real thick the usable size is a small % of what i started with but it looks so cool

[Joel]

Westhinghouse is in trouble now!!

[Joel]

Here's my first one in my own "micarta". Its red canvas that I bought at Walmart. I also have made denim, dark green canvas, burgandy canvas, and "woodpecker" canvas( black, red and white......actual white, not "natural). "The Knife is my Whale Warncliffe. 3 1/4" flatground blade out of 3/32" 154Cm Cryo'd by d'Holder. Still not quite finished yet. I won't put the final polish on or the edge until I do the sheath. Sorry about the pics, I was trying to show some detail, but hard to do with my simple camera. I am having fun now!!! Now if D'Holder will just get my next batch of blades back to me........

[Dragon cutlery]

menards had a good size can of resin for 10.00 personaly i dont like the smell so im planing on sticking with the G1 i was thinking of going to with west sistems ( i like the hand pump for large quantitys) but it looks like there is some color in it and i dont want it to dull any thing i might put in it

did you dye the canvis or buy it that color

[Joel]

Yeah that resin is pure murder indoors. WalMart(ours anyway) carries canvas in natural, white,dark blue, bright red(the knife I'm showing), dark blue and black. Runs around $4.33 at yard here......that's a lot of scales. So far, using Rit dyes, I've done the dark green and burgandy(rit calls it Wine). Followed directions exactly, I did mine on the stove top because it let me closely monitor the colour, and it came out great. They also have denim and some camoflage canvas.....cold day in hell before I build a knife with a camoflage handle.

Here's a picture of the finished knife. I finally figured on the exposure doohickey on this new camera, and the colours here are much closer to reality.

[IronMonkey]

Where did you get the G1 epoxy? How much did you use for scales etc.? How much did it cost? Thanks. Daniel

[Dragon cutlery]

got it here and used alot mabe 1/5ith of the bottle i got the medium size

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...110,42965&ap=1