Working G10

[Traok]

okay guys what am i doing wrong

I bought some 1/4" Black G10 cut it and sanded it a little 120 and 220. Now it looks... interesting as you can see the fibers etc...? I thought it would polish up black ? Am I missing something can this material not be sanded ? Seems silly if it wouldnt any help would be great..

Traok

[pipecrafter]

How are you sanding?

Any time I work G10, I use the belt grinder, followed a funky custom disc sanding setup and cushioned abrasives. G10 seems to benefit from the speed of power sanding. I've never tried hand sanding it, since I figured it would take darn near forever to do.

[Traok]

Yea i put it on my 2 x 72

[pipecrafter]

I just re-read your post. I've never tried to polish G10, so I don't know how well it shines. I actually just sandblast it most it of the time. Not only is that faster, but it makes a nice grippy surface on the handle scales.

[Ray Rogers]

Sand to 400 grit, then buff with White Diamond followed by No Scratch Pink (or any other combo of polishing compounds made for use on plastics). It will polish up like glass very easily.

BUT....just like any other synthetic handle material that is made by laminating cloth with resin you will always see the weave of the cloth. If you want just plain flat black you could try Black Paper Micarta, no grain in that worth mentioning .....

[Traok]

Pipe just for the record thanks for all the input thus far. .

So I figured a pictures worth a thousand words so here goes the first one in how I got it nice and smooth and black. The next is with the lines. It was a whole lot whiter untill I put it on the buffer with the black polish HAH.





Is there anyway to get rid of the lines to make it consistant and black ?
I Guess there is as Bradk12 finished this knife in g10 and it looks slick

http://www.knifenetwork.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=50108

THANKS AGAIN

[AcridSaint]

Like Ray said, the best bet is to sand up to 400 and buff.

[pipecrafter]

That's actually how G10 is SUPPOSED to look. It's part of the allure of the material. Making it go all homogeneous black shouldn't be the goal of using G10. As Ray said, if you want it all black, look at using micarta instead.

That said, you CAN make it plain black. But, you have to use a lacquer or other shiny clear finish. Here's a small necker I made with G10, sandblasted then lacquered:

[Traok]

So Ive got my g10 pinned but when I went to grind off the little extra and grind a little off to match the bolster height. The pins melted a nice large hole around them. I tried to do a pass and let it sit to cool but it didnt seems to matter. Do these have to be almost finished before I can pin them. I did a search in google How to work with G10 and any variationof it but I have not found any sources. Anyone know any good acticals dealing with this material or could throw some more insight ?

Thanks

[pipecrafter]

Actually, I just did exactly this yesterday. You have to keep the pins cool, otherwise they'll melt the G10 resin, as well as your epoxy - then they might actually slip right out of their holes. One trick I use is to do all finish grinding and sanding barehanded, and keep a finger on the opposite side of the pin that I'm grinding down flush. If I feel it start to get hot, I dump it in the bucket of water next to my grinder to cool it off - same thing I do when doing finish grinding and sanding on hardened blades. A fresh, sharp belt is pretty much necessary for this.

[kmab]

I always thought G10 was supposed to be a textured matte finish to add grip to wet, sweaty or otherwise slick handles.

Check this page at knifekits. http://www.knifekits.com/vcom/produc...7b7fab48705ee8

They talk about peeling the protective layer; that texture in the photo is what I'm after but can't seem to get my piece from Halperin to 'peel'.

Check the knives on pages 21, 48, and the tan handle on page 53 of the June 09 Blade magizine. That's the texture and finish I'm looking for.

Anyone know how to 'peel' G10?

[Brett Schaller]

The stuff you're looking at at knifekits is G-10 that has been surface textured, then had a plastic protective sheet applied over the texturing to protect the surface. That protective sheet is what is being peeled off after the handles are shaped.

Note that when using this stuff you can only shape the profile of the handles - the surface must remain flat or you'll grind off the texturing.

If you're just working with a normal sheet of G-10 and you want a textured surface you can bead blast or sand blast it, depending on how coarse you want the texture.