Black micarta is now grey

Qew71

Qew71

Joined
Dec 4, 2000
Messages
169
I have a knife with a black micarta slab handle. After some sanding it's now light grey...

Though it was never really black to begin with, this light grey colour is way off what I was expecting. Is there anyway to turn it black? Is there some sort of wax I should apply?

And micarta being a laminated material, what's the solvent base? Will acetone or stronger stuff affect the laminate??

Thanx in advance
 
If you have any oil, soak a rag in it and rub the handle with it. This will often restore the fading color of G-10 and Micarta. I use Tri-Flow or WD-40. Then after a little bit of rubbing, go ahead and wipe it off and wash it with soap and water.
 
nice work dan!

the handle is in fact smoother now than when I first got it.

and chang, I have tried oil on it... but considering that now the handle is smoother, I'm not sure if putting a lube on the handle is such a good idea... anyway, after washing with soap and water the oil came off and it's back to light grey again.

I was hoping for some sort of nonslip coating... heck I even thought of brushing on a coating of acetone/tolouene or some other nasty solvent.

any ideas? isn't there a way to "stain" micarta? I guess that's pretty difficult considering it's resistant to so many substances... any ideas?
 
When it comes to black linen micarta, you either get dark and slick, or light with a grip. But you could always color it with a black magic marker. ;)
 
Originally posted by Chris Crawford
When it comes to black linen micarta, you either get dark and slick, or light with a grip. But you could always color it with a black magic marker. ;)
Click to expand...

Dark & slick is what I'm aiming for!! :)
 
The only way to make it dark and slick is to polish the sucker. I don't have a real buffer. I chuck a 5" buffing wheel into my drill press and coat it with buffing compound. That will really blacken and slicken your micarta! Just Sand to 400 grit with wet/dry paper that has water on it and then buff.
 
Thanks for the comment on the knife QEW71
to get a better grip and keep it as black
as possible. you could say checker pattern it
like on gun stocks or maybe a basket weave then you could
buff her out..I'm not sure but I think they
have a vinyl coloring for car tops,
I wonder if that stuff would work on Micarta?
:confused:
 
not sure if I wanna go so far as to checker the handle... but the idea with the floor wax sounds good... I was thinkin along similar line on the way home. I'll probably try furniture wax on it, then a good buff.

actually, the knife is an Entrek Scout by Ray Ennis.

It came in a bead blasted finish and the canvas micarta handle was pretty grippy with a coarse finish (I think the whole knife was beaded after assembly)

Since I saw it in the shop counter I was thinking how good the knife would look in a satin finish. So the other day I tried to unscrew the bolts (hex head with allen key) but I think he used some epoxy in the thread and I could get the bolts to budge at all. in the process the allen key slipped out of the hex slot a few times and left some burrs on the edge of the slot.

So I got out my smallest files and took the burrs off... boy, the bolts looked good shiny. then I took out the silicon carbide paper and started to work on the 3 bolts... and the spine...

Now one slab of scale is really smooth and the other is semi-smooth... the spine looks really shiny and I'll work on the 2 faces of the blade this weekend.

This is just to set the whole micarta thread in perspective.

Anyway, I know some of you feel that messing with a knife someone else made is sacrilege but... HEY IT'S MY KNIFE!! BWAHAHAHAHA!!

no seriously, Entrek knives are really swell and I found the Scout one of the more attractive ones in the series. The Scout is made from good solid (3/16in) stainless stock and feels really fast in my hand. And did I mention solid?

the ONLY drawback is that I'm not partial to bead blasted finishes coz they're really easy to scratch with use and almost impossible to restore.

Thanx for all your input and ideas. If you guys can think of somemore ideas on how to colour the micarta (no magic markers, spray paint, enamel, etc...) I'd really love to hear from you guys!!
 
Originally posted by david lovins
buff it to get it darker; use red jewlers ruoge after sanding to at least 800 grit. youwill be happy david
Click to expand...

will do david! Actually my plan is to use 1500 or even 2000grit paper on the knife... I'll use jeweller's rouge after that. Hope that works!
 
QEU71
I had thought you wanted a non slip handle
what's why I suggested the checking..
but anyway sanding and buffing will do
what you what for getting it as close
to black as can be. I use the white
rouge after sanding down to 15 micron
 
Try Kiwi black shoe polish. I have used it on some of mine and it seems to keep the Micarta nice and black.
 
Try some JL 925 black rouge and medium buff. Works for me, and I never sand micarta over 400 grit.
KEN (WWJD)
 
Thanx guys! i'll go look for a jewellery supplies shop next week to get the rouge.

hmmm i'm not sure about th kiwi polish.. they smell really strong...


thanx again all
 
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