Thread: Weird question...felt scales?

Ok fellas, bare with me here...

I've been doing a little independent study of the artist Joseph Beuys and was thinking about his use of felt as a medium in his art and started thinking about using felt for scales.

What I'm thinking is...find some hard felt that I could cut into scales...then soak it in something that would harden it enough to work it a little more and would hold up to the pressure of peening...etc without bending/warping.

So here is my question...what (if anything) could I soak it in that might allow me to do this. Is it feasible or more "interesting idea (or not) but no"

PM dirtychrome and cannonfodder. They are scalemeisters that may have some thoughts on the matter.

Jerry

Never done it and know absolutely nothing about it. But I guess if you were to impregnate it with resin then clamp it, you would end up with something like Micarta.

Epoxy comes to mind.
Put some layers together with epoxy inbetween, and let dry under heavy pressure, and you got yourself some home made micarta
If you wanted to keep the felt look, perhaps saturation under vacuum could work?

Let us know if you decide to explore in this field

Best of luck.

Hey!

So I have been researching this for a couple of days. Felt is made from wool fibers, that are made from keratin. My initial thought was like the guys above to encase it in something. After thinking on it I wonder if you could use some chemicals like in a perm to chemically bond the scales in the shape you want. After doing the perm you would apply some lacquer or a thick yacht varnish. You can then use a softer metal pin like aluminum to prevent damaging the delicate scales.

So ... what do you think?

Carl.

Hmmm...interesting idea!

I've been looking at different felts and I'm thinking if I could find some high density felt about 3/16 thick (maybe industrial)...ideally what I would like to do is soak it in something that would really harden it. Then sand and round out the edges a bit...then varnish. I wonder if "perming" the felt would harden it enough to allow me to round off the edges with sandpaper...hmm. I'm going to get some felt and experiment

I could also line the scales to add a little weight and stabilize them if need be...

I know sometimes they will use lacquer or shellac on the hammers (hard felt covered wood) when voicing pianos. I would try soaking the felt in some sort of catalyzed liquid like an epoxy or polyester resin. Maybe work/knead the resin in with your hands and then lay it out flat to dry. If you have some way to pull a vacuum on it that would help with the soaking in.

I do not really know what I am doing here, I am just thinking out loud.

Charlie

Originally Posted by easyace

Never done it and know absolutely nothing about it. But I guess if you were to impregnate it with resin then clamp it, you would end up with something like Micarta.

That is what I would do....

I might add a base of linen or other woven fabric
perhaps fiber glass... even silk.

When compressing the felt will get thin so
take that into consideration.

Folk use paper too.

Sooo...how does one impregnate felt with resin? What do you think the thickness would end up being if I started with felt that was 1" thick?

Originally Posted by ryanjewell

Sooo...how does one impregnate felt with resin? What do you think the thickness would end up being if I started with felt that was 1" thick?

One inch felt.... Wow...
Depends on the density but would be very close to the crush
limit without resin.