Wrap Test #8: Hillbilly faux-carta

[Sam Cade]

Recently I procured a couple of the OKC, Old Hickory 7-14 butcher knives.

These are the biggest traditional knives that OKC makes.
1095 steel, usually well heat treated and free from gross grind defects. Nominal .10" thickness, both of my examples miked at .11"


Feeling frisky I knocked the off the scales of one of the examples and wrapped the exposed tang with fiberglass resin soaked cotton fabric then machined the resulting composite material to shape in situ.

For a prototype, it came out fairly well. I had the usual process time issues (lack of pot life in this instance ) but the process itself was fairly easy, though messy.

The main concern seems to be keeping adequate, equally distributed pressure on the grip while waiting for it to cure

I used a tape wrap and had some minor surface voids caused by folds and overlaps. In the future I will use plastic stretch wrap covering, which should do a better job I think.

Haven't touched the blade shape yet....so many possibilities.

 

[JShirley]

Find a good way to install a guard, and I'd love one.

 

[rcmodel]

I used a tape wrap and had some minor surface voids caused by folds and overlaps.

You might be able to vacuum bag it if you have a seal-a-meal or something.

We used to fiberglass Styrofoam wing cores for model r/c airplanes.

I picked up an old vac pump used to service A/C systems at a junk yard.

Anyway.
You could glass a wing and bag it in a clear plastic garbage bag with the vac pump and they came out looking like something the Lockheed Shunkworks built!

You smooth out all the wrinkles in the bag as the pump sucks the air out before the resin kicks over..

Absolutely glass smooth and prefect with no air bubbles anywhere.

I did have to put a regulator valve on the pump as it was powerful enough to crush the Styrofoam core at full vacuum.

rc

 

[Sam Cade]

Find a good way to install a guard, and I'd love one.

I'm ahead of you.

The process requires something at the north end of the tang to act as a stop when you start building up your composite layers, I used half a roll of electrical tape on this one.

I would have used a guard but we were having a thunderstorm and I was afraid of losing power....as we do every time it rains.


Fixing it would be pretty easy:

1. Cut slot in brass material
2. Fit slot to tang.
4. Slide into place
5. Braze/coldweld into place
6. Build composite wrap as normal


The wrap should lock it down and preclude any sort of rearward failure.

 

[Coop45]

Nice job!

 

[Sam Cade]

Nice job!

Thanks!

It feels pretty good in the hand. To me, the subjective feel is a bit like a leuku,although one with a flatted grip.


I'm gonna go flog some briers for an hour and see how it does.

 

[Gordon]

I think it looks very good and functional.What I can not understand is, no offense, but with some one with the immense talent you have as a knife builder would you use your time for a project us less talented would profit by ? Fun?

 

[Texan Scott]

Interesting choice of fabrics for the handle. Does Steve Tyler know you have one of his scarves?

Seriously, though... what resin are you using for the wrap? I'm looking a hand-laying a non-synthetic fiber cloth over a tortured plywood sheet form (small boat) and I'm really interested to know what you saturated that cloth in.

 

[Sam Cade]

Well, folks.

It sure ain't gonna fall apart! I put in a solid hour of work with it, finished up by some full force hurling at the side of the barn from a safe distance.

No loosening. No visible damage other than some scuffs.

The grip does a wonderful job at absorbing shock, no sting at all on hard cuts.

The butt end is a wee bit thin, probably add a few more layers and give it a slight swell as it is now it wants to over-rotate slightly outward on when held in hammer grip

 

[Sam Cade]

the immense talent you have as a knife builder

You might be confusing me with Sam "1911" Owens.

Fun?

Mostly for the chicks.

 

[Deltaboy1984]

Cool work I am thinking about Making some Black walnut finger groved ones for one on my old hickory butcher Knifes that handles have seen better days.

 

[Sam Cade]

Interesting choice of fabrics for the handle. Does Steve Tyler know you have one of his scarves?

It is horrific isn't it?

Blame my wife and her eccentric fashion sense.

I raided her fabric stash it was all she would let me have.

It was very very thin, and 100% cotton as far as I can tell.

Seriously, though... what resin are you using for the wrap? I'm looking a hand-laying a non-synthetic fiber cloth over a tortured plywood sheet form (small boat) and I'm really interested to know what you saturated that cloth in.

I used a generic fiberglass resin from 3M, in the big blue can. It is a horrible gloppy mess, but working with it isn't so much difficult as it is annoying.

Wear a respirator.
Have plenty of airflow.
The fumes will kill you.

After shaping the grip and final sanding I rubbed in a light coat of cyanoacrylate with a gloved finger in order to give it a slicker finish.

 

[Sam Cade]

Cool work I am thinking about Making some Black walnut finger groved ones for one on my old hickory butcher Knifes that handles have seen better days.

Just a warning:

The scales are held on by compression rivets, no problem to remove but you only have one round pin hole (the rear is a slot) so you are going to have to drill the tang to fit pins. 1/4" works nicely.

No big deal, but the tang is hardened you are going to need carbide bits to cut it.

 

[Sam Cade]

...Texan Scott:

 

[ugaarguy]

Hillbilly faux-carta

Sam, there's nothing faux about it: You literally made linen Micarta. You also did a darn good job for just playing around and experimenting with some spare (if eccentric) fabric.

 

[Sam1911]

This is really cool! Tie-dyed micarta! (Heck, you could use green, brown, and black fabric for "tactical tie-dyed!" )

By the way, I have managed to draw the temper of part of a blade I wanted to drill a few times, but it can be tricky. It sure beats messing with drilling through hardened stuff!

 

[rcmodel]

I have managed to draw the temper of part of a blade I wanted to drill a few times

I have too.
Spot annealing with a small torch tip to be exact.

But it depends on the steel, and you knowing what steel it is.

Air-hardening steel can end up harder then woodpecker lips, and harder then it was before you tried it!!

Carbide drills are the bee's knees if you want to avoid all kinds of problems.

If you already have a hole where you want it, but it's too small?
Grind it bigger with a carbide bur in a Dremel or Foredom grinder.

Trying to drill an existing hole larger with a carbide bit will break it before you know what happened.

rc

 

[Sam1911]

All true, of course.

 

[hso]

I know some folks that have laid up "custom" micarta in a similar manner, but none were nuts enough to do it as a direct wrap onto the tang. Points galore for that.


I saw the monster OH at the Ontario booth at blade and had a similar thought that it would make a great honking hacker.

 

[Gordon]

What ! TWO talented Sams? Hmmmm maybe why I named my son Samuel!

 

[Sam Cade]

I know some folks that have laid up "custom" micarta in a similar manner, but none were nuts enough to do it as a direct wrap onto the tang. Points galore for that.

I figured that laying it up directly on the tang offed considerable advantages in both performance and ease of manufacture.

If I do it this way I don't have to futz around with bandsawing the scales and locating the pins, drops the parts count and should make for strongest possible assemblage using these materials AND opens up the possibility for handle shapes not practical using scales.

I'm not saying it is indestructible, but man, it is tough..and could no doubt be tougher with properly spec'd materials.

I saw the monster OH at the Ontario booth at blade and had a similar thought that it would make a great honking hacker.

Did you perchance to get a card with direct contact info for one of their sales-folk?

 

[Sam Cade]

I have too.
Spot annealing with a small torch tip to be exact.

I've had some success with by chucking a nail into a drill press and laying the head of the nail against the hole and just letting it rip.

 

[Sam Cade]

Heck, you could use green, brown, and black fabric for "tactical tie-dyed!"

Just wait for it.

 

[Gordon]

Probably get some flack but one of the big attractions to Mad Dog knives for me has been Kevin's total use of laid up composite directly on the 3/4 tang. FYI he uses clamps to compress his layers of composite materials between the epoxy . Then they are contoured and sanded to finish.The trick he told me was besides everything chemically clean, was to get out all the air bubbles.

 

[Sam Cade]

. FYI

I've seen his process.

http://www.edgedspecialties.com/mad-dog-knives-shop-tour