Westinghouse Micarta, Ivorite, other vintage phenolics, etc.

Westinghouse Micarta? Sure


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John A. Larsen said:
AVigil, nice looking Tanto, who made it? John
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That was made by Kieth Coleman from New Mexico. He retired from full time knifemaking and now is a Luthier.
 
Avigil, do you own that Tanto? I wondered as it looks (looked closer) that it has a section of Amber next to the bolster. John
 
John A. Larsen said:
Avigil, do you own that Tanto? I wondered as it looks (looked closer) that it has a section of Amber next to the bolster. John
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Yep,

I Custom ordered it many years ago. That is Amber :)
 
I had no idea that the old rag micarta was worth much. In the 80's it was usually sold as "camo micarta". I used it a few times. I still have at least 3 sets of scales in a box somewhere in the shop. They look like they were rough cut with a bandsaw from a large block. Pretty sure I bought it from Texas Knifemakers Supply at a gun show (only I think I remember they were K&G then, then they sold out, K&G moved to Arizona, and then a year or two later the family started TKS).
 
Just got a pile of 1" thick vintage black canvas. The canvas pattern is pretty cool compared to modern stuff. I was stoked to see the manufacturers stamps as well!



 
You ground on any of this stuff Ben? The side grain looks the same as the other vintage canvas stuff I've got. I'd like to see what the fronts look like.
 
javand said:
You ground on any of this stuff Ben? The side grain looks the same as the other vintage canvas stuff I've got. I'd like to see what the fronts look like.
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I haven't ground the fronts yet, just polished up the sides. I will when I get a chance, or someone else can post a pic when they finish up a knife with it. :cool:
 
Here's a ' Lanny's Clip' from John Lloyd with rag micarta . This is a pocket knife that is employed and the 52100 carbon blade is taking on a nice patina.

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I know it's had bad press in the past and even recent past, but casein is an old and long established material that works well - ok, it has for me.

Posted this almost two years ago, and the same knife (made with casein by today's methods in UK) has not budged or moved, still as good now as it was then.

My house in UK is centrally heated, so quite dry, yet it has not moved.

Here's a couple of those pics again...


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VCM3 said:
Here's a ' Lanny's Clip' from John Lloyd with rag micarta . This is a pocket knife that is employed and the 52100 carbon blade is taking on a nice patina.

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Nice Vince! John Lloyd and I are the only ones with any of that color rag micarta, it's a really nice light green. Very nice knife.
 
Murray White said:
In the 1980's Micarta and particularly "white" micarta was popular because it was inexpensive to be used by the maker and offered a nice material for scrimshanders to work with. Because after a period of time it became drastically discolored it lost favor and even the greens and maroons were not used so much and most collectors today would prefer other handle materials.

Here is a piece by Peter Willis that was added to our collection in 1981 and while it is nicely colored in the photo, I suspect it might have been my error in post production as I decided to look at where it is now stored (a drawer with other Canadian makers knives) and the discoloring is much less and the handle has variations as it is rotated but seems to be more yellow.

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a second piece is done by Wolfe as an early knife and was a birthday present to my wife and the scrim is done by Charles Hargraves in a similar time period.

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The current color of the micarta is darker on the scrimmed side than on the reverse which is to be expected as that side would be exposed to the light more.

Unfortunately, over time lots of materials do change due to light but ivory micarta is one material which is more prone than others and many collectors including myself likely would not select it to be a material chosen for a knife today.
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Murray, in the upper right of the photo is the sheet of Micarta that grips for your little knife were cut from. I have not used any Micarta since, must be 30 years. I had forgotten that I have all this old Westinghouse stuff until a friend asked for some, so I dug it out for him.

Wolfe

 
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