I'm making a hunting knife for my daughter as a surprise gift. She knows I'm making something for her but she doesn't know what it is. I asked her what colors she liked and she said purple and black. I didn't have anything that color so I figured I'd try to make something. I watched some youtube videos on how to make fiberglass micarta. It seemed simple enough.
I bought some white burlap and RIT dye for $3 each.
The colors turned out pretty good after a 30 minute soak in the dye. I picked up a can of Fiberglass resin from lowes for $15.
I mixed the resin with slightly about half of the recommended amount of hardener. That gave me more working time before it set up. I put a layer of resin down on wax paper and then put a strip of burlap on it. I kept putting down more resin and alternating colors of burlap.
I made a jig for pressing it down. Most of the people in the videos I watched just used two boards and some clamps. The jig has spacers between two aluminum plates so it makes an even thickness when its tightened down. It squeezed a lot of excess resin out.
I was going to let it dry until my next day off but it seemed to harden up pretty fast. I set it out in the sun so that probably helped. It took a while to get the two plates apart. The resin had set up on the threads. Next time I'm going to spray the jig down with non stick cooking spray.
I trimmed up the edges and peeled the wax paper off. It looks good so far. I have a 2.5" x 12" flat piece ready to use. It set up very solid and hard.
I don't know how well the purple will show up on the inside once is shaped and sanded. I rounded off one corner to see what it looks like. I can see the purple layers but the black is more prominent. Maybe I should have used 2 layers of purple for every one layer of black.
