Micarta Scale

Back when I was in college, a professor showed me some elaborate knife handles. I was so intrigued with how the aesthetics of knife-making could transition into other facets that I am interested in such as tattoo machines or car accessories that I began to look up "how-to" videos on how to make my own materials. The material that I was particularly fascinated with was micarta. Micarta is a general term used for textile materials(canvas, duck cloth, denim, etc.) that is bonded with resin and compressed.

After learning that the three materials that I would need for this was fiberglass resin(which I picked up for about 15 dollars at autozone), denim(that I ENTIRELY paid too much for at Walmart), and a simple gig to clamp overnight, I began working on it immediately.

Not too bad for my first time pressing the material, but you can see that there are some ripples in the fabric, and the thickness isn't entirely uniform. I also had reasons to suspect that I might find voids in the material which I did find one or two when I was cutting the forms below on a bandsaw.

So for the longest time this micarta was just sitting on a shelf in my garage, but I ran across it today and decided to give it some shape and see how I did. The following photos showcase my experience shaping the material and the interesting grain that came from laminating two colors of denim together.

I should also mention as a disclaimer, if anyone else is interested in trying this technique, I would WEAR RESPIRATORY PROTECTION THROUGH ALL STAGES OF WORKING WITH RESIN.