Wrap Test #8: Hillbilly faux-carta

[Texan Scott]

Somehow I expect that getting cloth to adhere to stressed wood will be a lot easier than getting it to adhere to an untextured piece of steel. I'm thinking burlap. Easier to saturate, just a lot more sanding and topcoat.

I'm liking the red and yellow polka dot... you could make a complete set of kitchen knives, each with a completely unique handle. You could probably get some pretty wild fabric remnants at the local craft store. Someday, when the clerk asks you what you actually DO with it, you can put a crazy look on your face, giggle/ snort through your nose, drool a bit, and say "KNIIIIIIVES!".

Be sure your wife gets it on video, and YouTube it. I will pay you my ugliest necktie to see the woman's reaction.

Also, maybe now you can guess why my wife hesitates to take me out in public.

 

[Sam Cade]

So, version .02b.

Laid up more material over what I had already done.

Got carried away and ended up with a lump the size of a softball.

Used plastic wrap under the tape to compress the wrap while it cured.


Better, but still had surface voids. Not a huge deal but necessitates making the wrap larger and machining away more material that what I would otherwise have to.

Version .03b (still need to choose a blank) will use lateral compression via greasy bench vise and wood blocks. I think I might be able to mould in the flats pretty close to finished.
Also going to try to machine out an integral guard. I think the composite is tough enough for it.



Roughed out the new grip shape

Lots of swell toward the pommel to lock in the hand and give purchase for hammer-grip heavy chops.

Tapered toward the north end to facilitate 2-finger flicky-flick snap cuts for light vegetation.

POB is roughly 1.5" above the grip. Very neutral.

Bashed the grip against my shop anvil a couple dozen times then hurled it at the barn wall a few.
I think it is good to go, no delamination between the original layup and the new, no loosening of the assembly.

 

[ugaarguy]

Also going to try to machine out an integral guard. I think the composite is tough enough for it.

Ya think...?

Bashed the grip against my shop anvil a couple dozen times then hurled it at the barn wall a few.
I think it is good to go, no delamination between the original layup and the new, no loosening of the assembly.

You're doing well. Keep us updated.

I'm liking the red and yellow polka dot... you could make a complete set of kitchen knives, each with a completely unique handle.

That's a great idea. You could seriously sell those on Etsy or some other craft site. Just find a non-toxic epoxy, and make sure that you note the handles are made from recycled fabric scraps. Then market yourself as some hippie artist who got into knives after using them in your organic vegetable garden when you moved to the hills of Kentucky to get back to nature.

 

[hso]

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

Maybe, but you need to put it under pressure and let it cure quite a while so you don't end up with voids.

 

[Sam Cade]

Maybe, but you need to put it under pressure and let it cure quite a while so you don't end up with voids.

I'm only getting surface voids in the final couple layers of wrap due to irregularities in the final covering.

Each strip of cloth is wound around the tang with as much tightness as I can manage, that coupled with resin shrinkage I'm not terribly concerned about internal voids.
Before I started the project I did some softball sized wraps on a couple paint sticks then sectioned them in 1/2" slices and they were solid.

Thus far I've been using a pretty fast resin intended for automotive use. Nominal pot life is 15 min but I'm getting less than that in the heat of my shop.

First batch I did I mixed 8 oz in a 16 oz ( d'oh) container intending to transfer it. I didn't (d'oh) and it kicked off in a very impressive manner in less than 5 min.

Full cure time is running somewhere around 2.5 hrs

 

[RTR_RTR]

Do you know what makes the handle stick to the tang? I.e. does the fiberglass resin bond to the metal, does it leak through the rivet hole, does it maintain the compression it had under pressure once dry, etc?

 

[rcmodel]

I guess you have never glass-bedded a rifle stock and forgot to use enough release agent on the metal have you?

It's stuck till the cows come home if the knife tang was clean of any oil or greasy handprints.

rc

 

[Sam Cade]

I guess you have never glass-bedded a rifle stock and forgot to use enough release agent on the metal have you?

I have. :banghead:

When I stub my toe, I scream ACRA-GLASS!

 

[Sam Cade]

Do you know what makes the handle stick to the tang?

Not only is there surface bond, the shrinkage of the polyester resin causes it to "grab" the surface mechanically.

I'm hedging my bets and giving it something extra to hold on to.

 

[Wolfebyte]

One of the guys over on the 1911 forum had a thread a couple of years ago where he was forming his own micarta using different colors of denim.. they were clamped between sheets of plastic wrap and 1x4's to dry. Always wanted to try that as a knife handle, and now I've lived it vicariously through you.. Thanks!

 

[Sam Cade]

v.03b just out of the blocks.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

 

[ugaarguy]

Looks like nice fatty, marbled, raw, ground beef. Yum

 

[Jaymo]

The sectioned pic looks like scrambled eggs before you cook them.
Now, I want an omelet.
I've been thinking about making my own fake Micarta.
I have my wife's old breast pump, from when my last son was a baby.
If that doesn't pull enough vacuum fast enough, I have an AC vacuum pump I bought for some reason I've forgotten.

BTW, per Bondo's tech dept, you can cut the polyester resin 25% with acetone to make a better penetrating resin. I've been looking into using it to stabilize wood for knife handles.
They said that you have to increase the amount of hardener by an equal percentage, to get it to harden right.
IOW, if you use 3 parts resin and one part acetone (75/25) you have to use enough hardener for 4 parts resin.
Just thought it may be useful knowledge for those of you who actually have enough time for such endeavors.

 

[Deltaboy1984]

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.

Thanks Sam I replaced handles on OH Knifes before and yes you have to drill a second hole .

 

[Jaymo]

I've thought about using my single sided spot welding attachment to spot anneal.
As mentioned above, air hardening alloys will preclude this method.
One of my blacksmithing books shows chucking a nail in a drill press and running it against the spot where you want to remove the temper.

 

[TimboKhan]

v.03b just out of the blocks.

I like that one! I like it a bunch, actually.

 

[Sam Cade]

I like that one! I like it a bunch, actually.

Me too

At this point every wrap is a surprise when I cut it.



I'm headed to the shop to finish roughing it out right now.

 

[Sam Cade]

Game of Thrones break....

Initial cut for the guard made with coarse 1" belt.

Man, this stuff is murder on belts.

Bandsaw to take off the rest of the falloff on the knuckle side and then it is back to shaping with the beltgrinder.

 

[Sam Cade]

And the finished product.


Ontario 1-18 machete.

Stripped.

Convexed.

Spearpointed.

Rehandled.

As close to optimum as I can make it.

 

[Sam Cade]

I might be done for the evening since bees are swarming my shop.

 

[rcmodel]

Hose them with wasp spray and make a knife handle out of clear resin & bee bodies!!

That would be pretty cool I betcha!

rc

 

[Sam Cade]

Hose them with wasp spray and make a knife handle out of clear resin & bee bodies!!
That would be pretty cool I betcha!

I have seen a poured lucite tabletop done with cicada husks. It was, indeed, pretty cool.

 

[hso]

If those are honey bees RC's idea might not bee so cool.

 

[RustHunter87]

Thats ah lotta bees man!
I have been kinda following this thread some what and just wanted to let you know i think its great.
How hard it is to work? you say it eats up sanding belts, have you tried a grinder?

 

[Sam Cade]

How hard it is to work?

With the fabrics and resins I've been using it cuts a little faster than canvas micarta, doesn't seem to heat up nearly as much,doesn't stink as bad (micarta outgasses some horrible stuff) and is very dry feeling on the belt. Not gummy or grabby at all but loads the belts something terrible. Shapes very well with coarse grits. You don't ever have to "fight" it.

you say it eats up sanding belts, have you tried a grinder?

Its a combination of the loading and me leaning in and manhandling my belts to compensate. I have really, really cut a lot of this stuff the last week.

I'm using a couple different belt grinders.

A homebuilt kludge running a 1x30" at 3600 FPM and a 2x42" at 4400 FPM.

Most of my belts and discs are X-weights from Direct Abrasives in Minnesota.

A bench grinder with a stone wouldn't fair too well on this stuff. I don't even have a stone mounted in either of mine anyway, wire wheels all around.