Micarta instant bolster

[Gerhard Gerber 215]

My best micarta is made from wool material I bought on impulse, it's green and easy to get spectacular results, but less polished the grip is amazing....and it's wool, all natural an what not.

This is the only woolen material I ever found, so a while ago I go the idea to just buy wool.

My usual material shop only had fake wool, apart from (very expensive) "brushed kid mohair wool" 

Pondered for several months how to use it, then hand an idea.

I needed a bolster for a carving knife, started by winding up wool on the tang until  I was sure there was enough for the bolster.

Use 4 pieces of wood clamped in roughly the right place, mixed up some resin, dumped the wool in there and started winding it on between the "guides"

I put one layer of masking tape on the blade so when the resin had set I could tap off the fitted bolster to shape it.

Some black tint mixed with the epoxy completely hides the gap between the bolster and the blade.

Bonus is the mohair micarta has even better grip, right where you need it.

 

[Alan Longmire 1,796]

That's pretty genius, Gerhard!  I must steal that idea one of these days, if I remember to...

[Rob Toneguzzo 249]

Wonderful idea and it really looks classy too.

[Conner Michaux 158]

That’s a great idea, I’m definitely going to try that, if you don’t mind. 

Edited December 5 by Conner Michaux

[Gerhard Gerber 215]

Thank you all and you are more than welcome to do the same 

[Will Wilcox 206]

That's actually a really good idea, Gerhard. 

[dragoncutlery 26]

you can also do a guard and wrap up under it as you go the attached is what i call confetti micarta its strips of cotton based fabric and was wrapped epoxy wet (so similar ) on to the tang with the pin added later for looks i bagged it up and wood block clamped it to reduce air bubbles and then worked it as normal

[Gerhard Gerber 215]

Looks good Brandon, will give that a try!

 

I've been making a lot of rolled micarta with everything from linen to hessian, just choose your width, slobber on resin and roll up as tightly as possible.

I make them bigger than necessary, wrap in wax paper and apply some pressure to get rid of most gaps.

 

When I want something very tight and "accurate" I've used a loop of wire to catch the inner end of the material, once it's rolled up tight I snip off the ends of the wire and pull them out.

[Rob Toneguzzo 249]

9 hours ago, dragoncutlery said:

you can also do a guard and wrap up under it as you go the attached is what i call confetti micarta its strips of cotton based fabric and was wrapped epoxy wet (so similar ) on to the tang with the pin added later for looks i bagged it up and wood block clamped it to reduce air bubbles and then worked it as normal

This is great too.
Going to use these techniques on my next fillet knife.

Thanks fellas

[Ross Vosloo 152]

thats genius i tell you.... GENIUS!!!

 

i have been looking for options for hidden tang bolsters for thin chefs knives for a while now and i think i just found it