Friday, April 22, 2016

Micarta

I thought Micarta was a new thing.  Prolly made that assumption because the first time I became aware of it it was Micarta with carbon fiber fabric.  Carbon fiber is new, so micarta materials made with it must also be new?



Naw.  George Westinghouse was making micarta at least as far back as 1910.  You can make it with paper or canvas or fiberglass fabric.



It's just layers of stuff impregnated with some liquid resin and cured.

Makes good gun grips.



Back in 1910 you see those black rubber gun grips on stuff.  Often get chipped in their travel through the 20th Century.



I imagine a rubber grip was easy to make in a mold compared to shaping and checkering walnut or some bone product.



Micarta grips aren't cheap, but maybe they could be if it was the go - to material for grips.  But grips are SO last year.  Just make a gun with built in grips, as part of the stock or frame.

1 comment:

Bob said...

Arturo Longoria at the Woods Roamer blog teaches how to make micarta here. Great blog, by the way.

You see Micarta used often for knife handles, not so often gun grips.

An early gun grip material was Gutta-Percha. Gunfighter/lawman Bat Masterson once ordered a Peacemaker from Colt with Gutta-Percha grips.