A LIttle Micarta help...

[JimR]

Gents, I finally found a source for Micarta in Japan. The thing is, I'm not exactly sure what I need for scales, and I'd like some advice.

This place sells Canvas, Linen and "plain" (I assume that's paper?) Micarta for making knife scales in 3mm, 7mm and 10mm thicknesses. Now, 1/8 inch is the standard thickness for scales, right? So that would be about 3.2mm...but that seems really thin to me....Is 3mm what I'm looking for? Would 7mm be ok?

Also, to get a set of scales, what would be the right dimensions? They are selling them in 37mmx115mm slabs (about 1.5inx4.5in)...again, that seems kind of small--would I need two?

Also, those slabs sell for right at $10 each. Is that overpriced? (I imagine so, but...) I can also get similarly sized G10 for a bit less. Would that be better?

FYI, they also sell whale bone and baleen...if anyone wants some rather exotic scale material.

[Philadelph]

3mm is perfect. 7mm is way too thick.

115mm is too short for most razor scales. You need at least 155mm (rounded up) long.

$10 for each of those is maybe more than what you can find here, but that's your market I guess.

What dimension whale bone and how much $?

[JimR]

3mm is perfect. 7mm is way too thick.

115mm is too short for most razor scales. You need at least 155mm (rounded up) long.

$10 for each of those is maybe more than what you can find here, but that's your market I guess.

What dimension whale bone and how much $?

Hmmm...they sell much bigger slabs, but we're hitting triple digits with that.

The whale bone is 8x76x120, 4,800 JPY for two plates. The baleen is 6.5x30x125 at 1300 JPY for two plates.