And dang but i'm having a hard time finding my own pics as I just don't take that many, but will keep looking and post.

I like blades like the Becker/Kabar collabs that have removeable scales, it's just so hard to find micarta that I like that I finally had to start making my own.

Some factory blades with micarta they use so much freakin resin in it, that it feels like glass in your hand. Once in a while you find some pretty grippy stuff, I have an Ontario Ranger that came with pretty grippy micarta, albeit rough on the edges.

I tried a bunch of different materials, but have found denim is the best all-around for my taste, not as rough as burlap, but much grippier than linen or paper or other material.

I buy old blue jeans when they go on sale at secondhand stores. I use regular fiberglass resin, and weigh the stack down really good once I get everything gooped up and stacked.

It produces a finish that really feels like the texture of denim at the surface, in fact enough so that it will stain over time, but then you just wash it with a little soap and water and it cleans right back up. It's grippy even when wet, even when oily.

Curious if others do this, and what materials you use?

ETA: Bonus too for me, I have size XL hands, and I can make the scales much thicker to suit my grip.

I've made it a few times, but not as slabs. My survival knives have micarta wrapped while wet directly to the tang. I let it harden and then grind to shape. I use various fabrics and I've used bankline and hemp cordage. I wish I had access t my pictures, but photobucket is a scam and facebook is fucking me because I am the guy with no smartphone, so they see that as a security issue.(if anyone knows a free photohost, let me know)

I've made quite a bit over the years.  I use West System epoxy, but I did make the first few using fiberglass resin.  The fiberglass resin would start setting too quick, epoxy has a much longer pot time.  Walking through a craft store one time and saw a bunch of burlap in rolls 6" wide, all different colors.  Finished a knife recently with lime green burlap, came out awesome, reminds me of a dragonfly.  I've also used orange safety vest material on a little survival knife.

With the denim, try some alternating layers for contrast.  Two layers of light/faded and two layers dark, and keep stacking like that.  One-one is too fine a pattern, just kind of runs together, but 2-2 are thick enough layers that they come out looking great when contoured.

Can we get some pics??

https://imgdump5.novarata.net/

Most of mine I think are on the hard-drive of my desktop that's still boxed up from move, but had these on a thumb, BK-9, faded black denim that the resin faded even more to gray, with a few single layers of a bronze that matched the color of the lettering on the blade pretty well.

Nice!  I really was hoping to see what actual blue colored blue jean micarta grips would look like on a pistol or knife...

Thanks Dragynn.

Hemp wrapped micarta



Linen


Bank line.

I’ve done the same thing with denim. I worked exactly as you described but was damn messy to do. I’ve also used burlap and it also worked but aesthetically was not as good. I have a crate of felt in the garage of different colors I plan on experimenting with some day

Very nice! Rustic looking and from what i've read pretty accurate historically, I read about people back in the day doing this and using tree resin for the binder.

Have not tried felt, but have used fleece back in the day, not for knife scales but some custom fabrication and no weighted squeeze to get out excess, stuff turns out hard as nails, couldn't imagine it working too well for scales but I could be wrong.

Have also wondered about trying towel material, might give an interesting looking texture to 'em.

I got the felt in a bunch of bright colors. I’m sure it will darken when the resin hits it but I’ll see what happens. I’d thought about using red rags or old towels/sheets etc but I mainly use rosewood for scales. The whole mycarta experiment was to do something different and to meet a requirement for the Compositr Materials merit badge a few of my Scouts were working on

My first knife was layered blue jean pants material and cement from a fiberglass repair kit.  Layers squeezed slightly in a clamp but wrapped in wax paper.

Yep, got to use that wax paper.

But I weigh mine down pretty heavily for the clamp, 40 pounds or better of steel weights. Makes for a "drier" micarta where you can really feel the texture.

Got a knife from Buck that I just actually sold, but it had linen micarta and truthfully you could only tell it was micarta by looking at it closely, smooth and hard as a regular phenolic handle, kinda defeats the whole purpose of micarta IMO.

You sure it wasn’t a paper micarta and not linen? Many paper micartas just look like plastic.