How do you finish handmade denim micarta?

B

bellssn690

Joined
Jan 18, 2014
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Hello all. I hope I'm posting this in the right spot. I have been searching for this but wanted to see if I could get better information here. How does one finish (polish) their homemade denim micarta scales after they've sanded them and gotten them in their final shape? Please help a noob out. Thanks!!

I'd post pics but I don't know how to upload them here. This is my second knife and I have another that I did a DIY "parkerizing" (manganese phosphating) job on the blade. It's in clamps right now letting the epoxy set on those scales. I like the idea of making my own micarta (I like to DIY most everything...) but I'm not sure of the best way to seal/finish it after sanding. I appreciate any help!
 
From what I've been able to find out, it looks like using CA (superglue) is the best method but I'm also wondering how to polish the CA. If you used 0000 steel wool would that be too much? Or maybe wet sanding with 800 grit or higher? I'm just wondering what methods are the best/easiest that still give great results. Thanks for any help.
 
bellssn690 said:
From what I've been able to find out, it looks like using CA (superglue) is the best method but I'm also wondering how to polish the CA. If you used 0000 steel wool would that be too much? Or maybe wet sanding with 800 grit or higher? I'm just wondering what methods are the best/easiest that still give great results. Thanks for any help.
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Well, I'll answer my own question - I decided to just go for it and see what happened. I used the CA and did a couple of coats, letting it dry between and then I took the 0000 steel wool and lightly buffed all over. It came out good and I think I'll add several more coats to keep building it up and then buff it with the steel wool when I figure I've got enough coats. I wish I could post pic here to show you but I can't.
 
Go to tinypic.com

Choose to upload, select size you want, copy the message board link, paste.
 
Just finished two with Wranglercarta. Here's how I do it. Machine finish up to about 220. Then a good coat of CA. Machine finish further to about 400 grit. Then hand sand starting back at about 120 then up to 600 stopping at 220 and 400 in between. Then lightly buff with pink scratchless. Follow that with a coat of Mother's car wax with carnuba wax in it. Honestly I'm not sure the CA does anything except make me feel better. But following this procedure the handles come out pretty darn nice.
 
Sounds like a lot of process to me.
I'm wearing a blue denim mycarta blade right now. I hand sanded it to 360 or 600. Seems to hold up quite well. If I wanted it shiny I'd go to 1000. I do rub in some Flitz Gun & Knife Wax, but I do that to the entire knife.
 
Horsewright said:
Just finished two with Wranglercarta. Here's how I do it. Machine finish up to about 220. Then a good coat of CA. Machine finish further to about 400 grit. Then hand sand starting back at about 120 then up to 600 stopping at 220 and 400 in between. Then lightly buff with pink scratchless. Follow that with a coat of Mother's car wax with carnuba wax in it. Honestly I'm not sure the CA does anything except make me feel better. But following this procedure the handles come out pretty darn nice.
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I like that! Mind if I borrow it?

As for the OP not being able to post photos, there are several ways to do it. Personally, I use imgur.com. It is free to setup an account. I just load the photos, edit and size them and copy/paste the link provided for forums.

Good luck,
Chris
 
CA is basically acrylic right? I use white plastic specific buffing compound and get pretty good results. With home made laminates using material like denim I don't finish past 400 grit. On stuff that has a higher ratio of resin I take the paper to a high grit then just hit it with wd40. It seems like I had a bad reaction between CA a polyester resin on my burlap laminate last time I tried it. I'm not certain why that was but it seemed like the CA wanted to soften the resin. That stuff has much more surface area of unsupported resin (think of the resin between the open parts of the burlap) than a product made with a tighter weave like denim so it may be that CA works great with some, and not so great with others.

I suggest testing your CA on a scrap of your handle material if you go on to make the stuff with something like burlap.

Post pics when you can. I like seeing what others are doing. :)
 
Ya bet go ahead. The gal that made that stuff up for me said she had to charge me extra for cutting the "bow legged ness" out of jeans to get the parts straight.
 
Thanks everyone for the great ideas and help!! I've gotten both handles coated with CA now and I will do some light sanding up to the 600 grit (maybe a little higher depending on how it comes out) and then use my Mother's car wax (Excellent product) I have just sitting on the shelf. It needs to have another good use for it. Thanks again!!
 
Well I really got it right! I used a 3-M headlight restore kit that I had forgotten I had (I used it and it REALLY worked well!) and it did a really nice job on both knife handles. It has several different grits up to 3000 and then it has a polishing pad. I used that and then I got out the Mother's Brazilian Carnuba wax and used it and boy, what a difference it made! I'll try to get some pics of them as I went along my builds. I forgot to take pics at several points but you'll see the progress I made.
 
Here are some pics:
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23lcc2u.jpg
- this shot shows how I got the metal pin too hot while I was grinding it down. It looks like a black eye, darnit.

As you can see, I tried a manganese phosphate finish on the one blade and it came out pretty nice for a first time DIY job as did both of those handles. I must say, it was better than I thought I'd do as a noob. I hope you like them.
 
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