G10 safety

[ari6126]

Can you cut/sand G10 safety without wearing a mask? How hard is it? Would a dremel work?

[Gareth]

I know I would definitely be wearing a mask.

[ari6126]

Micarta too?

[Gareth]

TBH any time you are making any kind of fine dust I'd be wearing a mask, goes for wood too.

[ari6126]

OK. Between micarta and G10, which is easier to work with?

[jekostas]

OK. Between micarta and G10, which is easier to work with?

Depends on what's used to make them.

G10 is a trade name for an epoxy resin laminate of FRN.

Micarta is a general term for an epoxy resin laminate of a fibrous fabric or material.  Thus, you could have paper micarta, denim micarta, canvas micarta, linen micarta, etc.

What's easier to machine really depends on the substrate used.  I would definitely use a mask, though.

[chris777]

How strong is this stuff, everyone uses it for scales, but could it be hollowed out to say make a unibody multitool?

[ari6126]

How strong is this stuff, everyone uses it for scales, but could it be hollowed out to say make a unibody multitool?

Like a one piece tool (Atwood)?

[jekostas]

How strong is this stuff, everyone uses it for scales, but could it be hollowed out to say make a unibody multitool?

Not without some serious engineering challenges.

The epoxies used to make Micarta tend to leave the handles very brittle without some sort of stabilizing element like a steel liner.  I remember a post by Sal Glesser on the Spyderco forums a year or so back stating that the reason they were no longer making unlined micarta knives was that they were having problems with the screw holes that were tapped for clips cracking, and there was no way to fix them.  I believe it was the Goddard series of micarta-handled knives.

G10, on the other hand, has a different problem - since the base material is FRN, it has a decent amount of tensile strength.  The problem is that it's rarely stiff enough.  There are very few unlined G10 handles knive in existence - I think the Cold Steel Lawman and Spartan series are the only full sized ones, and they have a chunk of steel in the lock mechanism providing structural stability.

With the significantly increased amount of engineering that goes in to multitools, you take those difficulties and multiply them by a large amount.