Does anyone here know how old Micarta is? I know that W.D. Randall saw it being used for countertops while his house was being built and tried it for knife handles.

But I'm not sure when his house was built. 1950's?

How old can a knife be and still possibly have had a Micarta handle? I'm guessing that linen Micarta is what we're talking about.

I've seen it used in WWI era electrical control equipment (in steel mills).
Wikipedia says that it's a Westinghouse product developed around 1910.

__________________
In dog years I'm dead.

Micarta (r) is a registered trademark of Norplex-Micarta. They currently manufacture thermosetting resins and industrial composites. DeadAye has a good pointer to a Wikipedia article about Micarta.

Russ

She should be about 32 or 33 by now.

Oh, I thought you were talking about a crack addict that I arrested in the Birmingham, Alabama area 10 years ago.

__________________
John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

I think her name is spelled with a y...

__________________
Proud anachronism

I read the Wiki article before posting the topic, but wasn't sure that it's the same stuff that we know as Micarta today.

It may well be, at least in the early form. But it seems odd that it took so long to be used in knife handles. Maybe part of the issue is expense and how hard it is to work on a commercial scale.

Randall Made knives are handmade, and can employ materials too expensive or hard to work for factory knives. And he was a pioneer in improving knife designs, so he may well have been the first to use Micarta. Could be it was there for decades before anyone thought to use it for knives.

same stuff.
It WAS developed as a durable, waterproof and oilproof insulator.
Paper is not often seen included anymore and the fabrics have changed and the resins have probably evolved somewhat, but the basic idea is the same.

Why did it take a long time to migrate to knives?
Don't you remember- 'plastic' was a cheap sub for real material like wood and leather and stag.
Why did it take so long for 'plastic' to be used for gunstocks, grips, and .......
.....even guns I've been told!

__________________
Regards,
Lee Jarrett

Micarta goes back to near the first of the 20th century---before 1920 anyway.
Blessings

__________________
TEXAS, by GOD

You sure that wasn't Linoleum?

Some guitars and musical instruments have micarta fingerboards and bridges, in place of ebony or rosewood. It's supposedly very stable, but I'm not a big fan, I prefer wood.

Josh P

It's Lynoleum, her brother is Formica....

I'm too lazy to see if anyone brought this up, but is it similiar or the same as the stuff bowling balls are made out of?

Wyatt-

I think I read that bowling balls are of some phenolic resin, or were. Buck knife handles are a phenolic resin, too, maybe different. I mean those for their traditional sheath knives, like the Model 119.

Lee-

Your analogy puzzles me, considering that hard rubber or gutta percha was used on guns as far back as the 1870's, and round-butt M&P's usually had those into the 1930's,at least.

Randall was a shrewd marketing man. I knew him for years. He stressed the stabiity and ruggedness of Micarta, and never referred to it as "plastic." It doesn't really look or feel like plastic, either.

I'd rather have a Micarta handle on a hard-use knife than leather, etc. It won't get moldy or succumb to fungus attacks like some materials will in a tropical environment.Or, stain or come unglued like leather can.

And I like what Buck calls "Buckarta." I wish they'd offer white handles again, but of a more durable substance than what they used in the 1960's. Some of those white handles cracked in extreme cold. I think they were made of Melomene (sp?). Whatever that is...

Bowling balls are also made of resins although of a different sort. I saw a show on the Science channel or the like of bowling balls being made. They consist of a one or two-piece core and an overmold to the spherical shape made of urethane or other resin.

Russ

Micarta is made of linen or paper + other things.
It is tough and durable.
It was developed for the electrical industy as an insulator.
Blessings

__________________
TEXAS, by GOD

If tin whistles are made out of tin, what do they make fog horns out of?