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I just ordered a sheet of Micarta and a sheet of G10 thinking someday I might try to make some scales from them. How are these materials to work with? Do they cut, sand and polish similar to wood? Any special precautions or concerns? I am hoping that my scroll saw will suffice. The Micarta is a Burgundy Linen and the G10 is a Red/Black. I can envision some uniquely pretty scales from both.
OregonTY has posted this as a guide to working with them. Have a look.
http://straightrazorpalace.com/misc/...al-review.html
I tried my scrole saw and it did not work. If you would find a metal blade for your scrole saw that would most likely work. Standard wood blades for any type of saw do not work. Good luck. PM with any questions.
micarta can be cut with a coping saw and seems to sand down pretty easily... never used g10
Micarta's pretty easy to work. Having made a lot of scales from it, I'd say it's close to wood in working difficulty. Same with G-10. Use a respirator. The difference is in cutting. G10 will absolutely destroy a great saw blade. I actually couldn't get a set of scales thickness cut once (I was sawing them in half from 3/8" stock) with a brand new blade on my bandsaw. It had the blade throwing sparks, and dulled immediately. It sands and grinds (with a belt) pretty easily, but the fiberglass cloth substrate will wreck blades. I've got a big chunk of the stuff ByronTodd gave me over a year ago, and can't use it because I can't cut it into pieces (and I've got pretty good equipment :D)
That's pretty much what I expected to hear, but I think I stumbled upon a solution. Several years ago, my wife decided that she wanted to get involved in stain glass and I bought her a water cooled saw that she used to cut out glass and tile shapes for her projects. That was several years ago and it has been sitting in the garage idle for awhile. It got me thinking that if that bugger would easily cut her glass, it would probably work fine on G10 and Micarta as well. I'll soon find out.
wood saws are all but useless on G10
metal saws and bi metal blades are the only way to fly and even then the blades dull fast
but no sparks and you can get your cut