RIT fail vs success

hhmoore

hhmoore

Joined
Feb 7, 2014
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Having a couple of BKs sitting without scales (because I hadn't gotten around to re-dressing them), and having seen countless posts of dyed micarta, I decided it was time for me to give it a whirl. Step one - order micarta scales - Done...but wtf is this??
Pze7IaA.jpg

The full size scales look like natural micarta. Never gotten that before. I don't particularly care for that color; but I was planning on dying them anyway, so it wouldn't matter.
I decided on green; but figured that Dark Green would be darker than I wanted, so I grabbed some Pearl Grey to mix with it. I filled a big ol' pot with hot water, added a dash of dish soap and some sea salt, then dropped in the scales. Using my scientific eye, I measured/poured appropriate amounts of each color into the water. I stirred and stirred, then put the pot over low heat. Barely 10 minutes later, the tweeter scales looked good... and the full sized scales didn't look much different than when I'd started. I gave them a few more minutes, then pulled the tweezers out of dye bath and added more dye (hoping that would help with the remaining scales). By the 40 minute mark, I was still unhappy; so I added even more dye...and the now nearly dry tweezer scales were just a little lighter than I wanted; so I dumped them back in for 5 minutes. I let the full sized scales go another half hour after I removed the tweezers (with the rest of the bottle of dye added!!), and - well - I'll let the picture do the talking.
NdbQwMe.jpg

They are still damp; but it's pretty obvious that the full sized scales did not like the dye. The tweeners ended up getting darker than I wanted during their second dip (due in part to the added dye); but I can live with that. The other set, though, just plain sucks - I'm probably not even going to bother trying to dye them black.
 
i never really figured micarta COULD be dyed if the resin prep was good

likely hitting it with a wire brush to open the texture - surface resin perhaps blocking stuff?

dying some resin and applying that in a super light gel coat?
 
I threw them back in with a enough water to cover them & half bottle of dye. It's been about 45 minutes...and they might be just a bit darker. I'll leave them in for a couple hours, then decide whether to let them sit overnight.
Maybe scuff them up a little before I wander off
 
add some strong white vinegar, bring solution to boil, have handle already suspended by the hole, pour hot liquid on scales - hot hot hot

then let sit and cool
 
I've had good luck dying micarta with oil based leather dye.
wipe on, wait 10 seconds, rinse and even light scrub with dawn dish soap.
 
I’ve only used the Rit synthetic dye. The pot you use will be ruined. I heat up my mixture of water, Rit, and a generous splash of white vinegar just so that you can start to see steam coming off the surface. I then let it soak for 30 minutes over the heat and I stir occasionally. Afterwards I rinse the scales off in warm water as I gently scrub with dish soap. I’ve never had an issue...

k7Z6zV3.jpg


Btw, as long as I’ve been dyeing scales the colors have always looked like your pic above, the full size and tweeners are noticeably different. Once dyed they look similar enough for me. They also darken with age.
 
Not sure about the micarta dye,
but g10 gray(my 204p pm2) dyed to black ,starts out black but starts to wear similar to black jeans fading to gray,tried dyeing a manix lw didn't work at all (definitely diff. type of plastic)
dyed an Endura Cutlery Shoppe exclu. orange zome ,with a choclate brown dye turned into a nice blackcherry with black leopard spots (best success dyeing so far)

so the endura plastic and the Manix LW plastic must be completely diff. stuff ???
 
micarta is natural fibers soaked in an epoxy resin - the natural fibers can pick up dyes.
G10 is fiberglass in epoxy resin - symthetic fibers resist non-solvent based dyes
FRN (endura plastic handles) is fiberglass reinforced nylon - nylon loves adding color.
terotuff is polyester fibers in an epoxy resin -- I suspect it will soak up dye better than G10 but not as well as canvas micarta.
 
Thank you, all, for the comments & advice. I pulled them out of their second dye bath about 2 hrs ago, and they're better... I'll decide when I've seen them in better light if I'm going to put them on a knife.
GeofS said:
Btw, as long as I’ve been dyeing scales the colors have always looked like your pic above
Click to expand...
If you're referring to the BEFORE picture, I don't believe I've ever received natural micarta BK scales - as mentioned, I'm not a fan of natural micarta; so I wouldn't have bought more of them (and I've got micarta on just about all of my Cam BKs). Admittedly, I haven't bought them recently; so maybe they've changed - and you started - since my last purchase. I'll post a picture of my other's later, for comparison (truthfully, as certain as I am that these are different, I am compelled to check to make sure I'm not mistaken).
I'll take pics of the re-dyed scales, as well.
 
ok, they aren't as green as I remembered; but they're not nearly as tan as the new ones, either. I should have thought to take a side by side before dyeing
5KPDNjs.jpg


Here are the new scales, under early, overcast skies
DYyB38q.jpg
 
hhmoore said:
Having a couple of BKs sitting without scales (because I hadn't gotten around to re-dressing them), and having seen countless posts of dyed micarta, I decided it was time for me to give it a whirl. Step one - order micarta scales - Done...but wtf is this??
Pze7IaA.jpg

The full size scales look like natural micarta. Never gotten that before. I don't particularly care for that color; but I was planning on dying them anyway, so it wouldn't matter.
I decided on green; but figured that Dark Green would be darker than I wanted, so I grabbed some Pearl Grey to mix with it. I filled a big ol' pot with hot water, added a dash of dish soap and some sea salt, then dropped in the scales. Using my scientific eye, I measured/poured appropriate amounts of each color into the water. I stirred and stirred, then put the pot over low heat. Barely 10 minutes later, the tweeter scales looked good... and the full sized scales didn't look much different than when I'd started. I gave them a few more minutes, then pulled the tweezers out of dye bath and added more dye (hoping that would help with the remaining scales). By the 40 minute mark, I was still unhappy; so I added even more dye...and the now nearly dry tweezer scales were just a little lighter than I wanted; so I dumped them back in for 5 minutes. I let the full sized scales go another half hour after I removed the tweezers (with the rest of the bottle of dye added!!), and - well - I'll let the picture do the talking.
NdbQwMe.jpg

They are still damp; but it's pretty obvious that the full sized scales did not like the dye. The tweeners ended up getting darker than I wanted during their second dip (due in part to the added dye); but I can live with that. The other set, though, just plain sucks - I'm probably not even going to bother trying to dye them black.
Click to expand...

I think the big ones did take the dye. Unfortunately for you the epoxy layers are red instead of a neutral color, so that didn't change. I don't think you can fix that as the epoxy isn't permeable.

They do look better than when you started though. I wish someone would offer different color micartas and other materials for lots of mfg knives.
 
Post 12 is the same scales, after another dye bath - much more acceptable to me.

Joe at LMF will do Esee and Becker scales in a variety of colors...or at least he used to.
 
Did you use the Rit DyeMore liquid Synthetic for polyester, nylon, and acrylic? If not, you may want to try that.
 
I wavered between the two...and went with the regular RIT, because I could find it locally.
If I try this again, I'll go with the DyeMore. I wasn't sure about "Peacock Green"; but these didn't turn out dark green, so I guess that part doesn't matter.
 
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