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Tutorials - Making Textured Home Made Micarta
How to texture multilayer materials to make interesting patterns appear.

The clothings I bought for this project. (Pictures 1 and 2)

Making the pile, applying polyester resin in between each piece of clothing. I used about 60 layers. (Pictures 3 and 4)

This is the most time consuming part of the process.I placed the clothings on some oiled 1/2" steel plates to prevent gluing to the press and off it went for 12 tons of hydraulic pressure. (Picture 5)

I left this one pressed for a long time, but at the hour the resin was already dry (you can check that on the pieces of clothing outside the press or on the recipient where you mix the resin and the catalyst for hardening)

Time would depend on the resin and ammount of hardener you use, so you should do some test with the product you can get yourself and not use my directions as an strict guide on this matter.

Be careful as some hardeners work really fast and it doesn't give you time to do your work before drying the resin.

Right off the press. (Picture 6)

After I tested some sculpting to gain an idea of the job ahead. (Picture 7)

This is after I cutted a piece for a slab and rounded it. (Pictures 8 and 9)

Tutorials - Making Textured Home Made Micarta   Tutorials - Making Textured Home Made Micarta   Tutorials - Making Textured Home Made Micarta   Tutorials - Making Textured Home Made Micarta   Tutorials - Making Textured Home Made Micarta   Tutorials - Making Textured Home Made Micarta   Tutorials - Making Textured Home Made Micarta   Tutorials - Making Textured Home Made Micarta
Picture 1   Picture 2   Picture 3   Picture 4   Picture 5   Picture 6   Picture 7   Picture 8

Same two slabs, now polished, with a cooler look, as the polishing enhances the contrasts between the colors (Pictures 10 and 11)

This were the first flat slabs I made, but I didn't like them, so I tried with the previous round ones. (Picture 12)

Shown with the round ones. (Pictures 13 and 14)

After those attempst, I made a new block of micarta with thinner fabric and a more vivid green (so it doesn’t look so dark after the resin) and came up with this. (Pictures 15, 16, 17 and 18)

Tutorials - Making Textured Home Made Micarta   Tutorials - Making Textured Home Made Micarta   Tutorials - Making Textured Home Made Micarta   Tutorials - Making Textured Home Made Micarta   Tutorials - Making Textured Home Made Micarta   Tutorials - Making Textured Home Made Micarta   Tutorials - Making Textured Home Made Micarta   Tutorials - Making Textured Home Made Micarta
Picture 9   Picture 10   Picture 11   Picture 12   Picture 13   Picture 14   Picture 15   Picture 16

With that micarta I started the work and I made the slabs to replace the wooden ones. (Pictures 19 and 20)

This is the other side slab, without any special work on it yet. (Picture 21)

And this are the final slabs, presented on the knife handle. (Pictures 22, 23 and 24)

Tutorials - Making Textured Home Made Micarta   Tutorials - Making Textured Home Made Micarta   Tutorials - Making Textured Home Made Micarta   Tutorials - Making Textured Home Made Micarta   Tutorials - Making Textured Home Made Micarta   Tutorials - Making Textured Home Made Micarta   Tutorials - Making Textured Home Made Micarta   Tutorials - Making Textured Home Made Micarta
Picture 17   Picture 18   Picture 19   Picture 20   Picture 21   Picture 22   Picture 23   Picture 24
Finished Knife
San Mai Damascus Fighter / Small Sword   San Mai Damascus Fighter / Small Sword   San Mai Damascus Fighter / Small Sword   San Mai Damascus Fighter / Small Sword   San Mai Damascus Fighter / Small Sword   San Mai Damascus Fighter / Small Sword   blank image   blank image
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