The resin I use is either polyester or epoxy, and once
you mix it with a hardener, as the resin by itself won't dry and get
hard, you place one layer of this mix in top of a piece of fabric
(like you were putting jam on a cracker), then you place another piece
on fabric on top and start doing the same process over and over until
you reach the desired height.
Take into consideration that you're going to press that, so the height
will get considerably reduced.
Once you get this done, you put it on the vice, making sure that the
parts that make contact with it (or the layers of metal that you use
between the micarta and the vice) are properly oiled, or otherwise
this micarta will stick to the vice and it will be a real mess to
unglue it. (Picture 1)
Once it gets completely dry (time would depend on the materials and
resins) you just take it off the vice and can use it as you please.
You can use pieces of fabric of the same color or different, depending
on what you want to achieve. (Picture 2)
What I do in order to achieve some designs on the micarta so I don't
have to make stange shapes on a handle or cut diagonally or so, is
to place little acrylic cilinders on the bottom and top of the micarta
before I press it, so even if I loose a lot of material as I can only
use the center part, it gets me nice designs. (Picture 3)
The process for a multilayer wood is the same as the one I use with
micarta, but in this case I used black resin instead of transparent,
to test how the wood would absorb the resin, making a nice effect.
(Picture 4)
Once you get rid of the non usable parts of it by filing it on both
sides, you get a piece of this new material that you can use it as
a regular piece of wood or micarta on a handle/sheath. (Picture
5)
You can use this technique with a variety of materials, such as leather
or acetate. (Pictures 6 and 7)
If you use transparent resin, you get nicer details by using woods
of really different colors to contrast better. (Picture 8) |
