New handle material

[taz575]

I found out that a company in CT, Current Composites, makes phenolic (micarta) and Fr4 (G10, but it is actually an insulating grade), carbon fiber and a brand new product just announced this past Wednesday called AmeraGrip! AmeraGrip is a laminate of FR4 and Nitrile Rubber, so it is similar to G10 SureTouch. Gives a nice grippy handle! I found out that the grand daughter of the guy who started the business works there and lives about 5 minutes away from me! She stopped by to drop off a set of blaze orange AmeraGrip scales, so I decided to make a knife!

So I got a 62 HRC AEB-L blank that was drilled, but unground other than the profile. I figured it would make a nice EDC type blade for her to try the material out on! I epoxied toxic green liners to one side of each of the scales since they were only 1/4" thick, but the pic was taken before the liners were epoxied on. Once the epoxy cured last night, I trimmed the excess liner off, so I started with the blank and the rectangular handle scales with liners on them at 7:15pm last night:

7:27 PM, I had the handle scales rough shaped out, drilled for the mosaic pins and the SS lanyard tube and the pins and tubes cut down:

I cleaned up the front of the handle scaled to 320 grit on the belt sander and then switched over to the blade work! AEB-L is still really easy to grind, even when hardened to 62 HRC, so I was curious to see how long it would take! The cutting edge is 3 1/8" long. I started grinding with a 60 grit belt at roughly 7:30pm after marking out the edge center and where I wanted the plunge cuts. At 7:44, I took this picture after I cleaned the blade grind up with a 100 grit belt and started cleaning up the ricasso area. I also added in a fuller to the handle to reduce some weight and give an area for epoxy to build up in:

[taz575]

And at 8:01, I took these pics! I worked from the 100 grit belt up to a 120 and 220 grit flexible ceramic grit belt to even up and round out the plunge cuts, clean up the blade bevels and clean up the ricasso some more, then went to a Trizact ceramic A45 belt. After that, I dropped down to a 180, 240 and 400 grit Compact Grain AO belt, which gives a nicer satin finish, and then used a Fine Grit Scotchbrite belt for a nice satin finish! 30 minutes from start to finish to grind out the blade!

After blade grinding was done!

I roughed up the back side of the liners, got the pins and lanyard tube roughed up for gluing and at 8:23 pm, the handle was all clamped, front of the scales cleaned off and the JB Kwik Weld starting to cure.

At 8:37, the epoxy was cured, so I went into the garage to trim down the pins and tube and start shaping the handle!

[taz575]

8:37 PM, I started with an 80 grit belt to get the scales flush with the profile of the tang and started some contouring. Worked up to a 120, 220, 320 and 400 grit belt and then some quick hand sanding on a hard EVA foam backer with some 600 grit and at 8:59, took some pics after rinsing the dust off in my water bucket!

[taz575]

And just after 9:00pm, I was rubbing on some Tung Oil and trying to get some nice pics in the indoor lighting!

So 7:15pm to 9:00pm, 105 minutes to go from a hardened blade unground blank and a set of scales to a nearly finished knife! I just need to make the kydex sheath, etch the blade with my Logo and sharpen it up!

The new handle material works really well. With SureTouch, you often feel the ridges between the rubber and G10, but not with this material! The colors are more vibrant, too! The rubber gives excellent grip/traction and the material feels lighter than the SureTouch as well and isn't as flexy! I think Current Composites has a winner on their hands!

[stevem627]

That looks nice! One thing that I like is the color on this handle, and the extra grip is always good.

[Kekoa]

Sounds like a pretty compelling handle material option. Also very nicely done knife as usual. ABE-L sounds like quite a pleasant steel to work with.

[taz575]

AEBL is easy to grind and finish, takes a wicked edge easily and touches up quickly. Very much like simple carbon steels, but is stainless. Looking forward to getting some thicker material from them!

[taz575]

[taz575]

Got another 2 done in AEB-L for Current Composites! I have 3 more to make for them; we are bartering materials for knives since a lot of their workers saw the first one and wanted one! I am mixing these in between orders since they dropped off a bunch of handle material for me!

The green is their Day Glo, and is a very nice green to see in G10 that isn't a super dark Forest Green or a blah Olive Drab green!

[Jeff B]

Those Kydex sheaths really make those a nice package.

[taz575]

Thanks Jeff! I try to match them to the handle color if possible, or use basic black. I have another 3 more to make for Current Composites and am getting some carbon fiber pieces from them. Bartering is fun!

[taz575]

I had bought some cable a while back and finally got to use it. My first attempts had a lot of delams, but I managed to squeeze out a bottle opener that wasn't too bad a couple weeks ago. Cable Damascus needs to be untwisted a bit to get flux inside, and then twisted tighter, but my vise was inside the garage and slow to tighten down, so I wasn't getting good twists because I was losing heat. I picked up a Pipe Vise a while back, but didn't have a good bench to mount it on. So I improvised and made the Pipe Vise into a Hardy tool for my Anvil!

Now I can twist it nice and tight, which starts condensing the cable down and starts forge welding it! The cable is all the same steel, but the individual strands burn off carbon during the forging process, so the pattern shows up due to the decarbed areas being more of a mild steel (less carbon left in it), which shows the patterning.

I wanted to do something different for Current Composites Prod. Manager Brian, who is the grandson of the founder of the company and my contacts sister. He wanted Red AmeraGrip and his sister gave me some cool marble carbon fiber/red G10 material to play with. I stacked up 3 pieces of the Carbon Fiber with Red G10 and then added a red G10 liner to it to use as the guard. The frame of the handle (hidden tang) is also the carbon fiber with Red G10 and I used black liners as well. I figured the cable blade would look cool with the carbon fiber, so he is getting my first Cable Damascus Blade since I was the first one to make a knife with their handle materials!

Here is the cable damascus Red/Black/Carbon knife!

I still gotta do a fillet knife with a Blue Ameragrip handle, a 3" hidden tang with blue Ameragrip, a 3" S35Vn blade with a Pink AmeraGrip handle, and a 5" Dagger with Black for the Dad, who just retired from running the company. I stopped by their factory last Tuesday and got some really cool material! Some aged, vintage ivory paper micarta, some wood laminates (like the old, good dymondwood!!!) in single colors (reddish hues that reminded me of the wood on Takamura's and some black). They have a TON of vintage materials at their warehouse, so I will have some cool stuff to use on handles soon!

[Kekoa]

That is a really cool way to do Damascus! I didn't know that was possible to do that with one type of steel unless it was wootz.

I'll be curious to see the dagger when you make it. I am quite fond of dagger designs but don't own one yet.

Sounds like you scored getting in contact with this company!

[taz575]

Yeah, the dagger is going to be interesting! Lol. Its nice to barter knives for materials, and I get some cool, odd ball stuff to use!

[Kalaeb]

That is a pretty cool material. Do you think it would be too "sticky" for a chef knife? Maybe a good fit for a boning.

[taz575]

It isnt as sticky as Sure Touch due to having more fiberglass layers between the rubber, and it has a softer feel to it too compared to g10 and micarta. The grippiness really shines when wet/slimy. Great for boning/fillet knives!

It has some shock absorption, so some feedback may be muted? I have 2 magnacut gyuto blanks (240mm and 210mm) and another big 10" 52100 gyuto blank here to work on when I get some time and one may end up with some Ameragrip!

[taz575]

More AmeraGrip!

Blue Ameragrip. I buffed this as well and it takes a nice shine like regular buffed G10 and the rubber is still tacky and grippy!

Finished this 4.5" dagger in 80 CRV2. Handle is black AmeraGrip with carbon fiber, and red G10 liners

[Jeff B]

That dagger turned out nice Tim and I really like that carbon fiber look to the handle.

[taz575]

Thanks! The look of the fiberglass fabric comes out nice in black amd almost looks like carbon fiber! They are going to do layers of rubber and carbon fiber soon, too!

[Kekoa]

That dagger looks awesome! Love the colors and pattern of the handle.

Is there a bit of a recurve near the tip on the right side bevel, or is it just a trick of the camera?