I bought some vulcanfiber liners and read a lot about how to make my own micarta grip blocks. And as I am always happy to try to build things myself instead of buying everything ready made I wanted to give it a try.
I have some experience in working with epoxy because in 2018 I built some parts for my motorcycle with carbon fiber. That made things a lot easier – not only because I had a liter of epoxy andd hardener standeng next beside my workbench.
On my first knife I did not want to sacrifice the vulcanfiber liners I bought so I asked my daughter for her colored handicraft paper and took a dark red and white sheet. I cut it in the size of the wooden halves of the handle and laminated the single pieces of paper (around 130 g/m²) onto each other. The bottom sheet was a bit bigger to stop too much epoxy get below that sheet and under the stack.
The epoxy soaks through the paper and connects through all layers – which is very important. It also soaks through the bottom sheet so it is important to put something under the stack that does not stick to epoxy. I use cellophane wrap for this – another option I wat to try in the future is baking paper.
The inside of the wooden handle half is sanded and also gets well coated in epoxy too. I put the wood as the top layer on the stack and press it all together with clamps. I use a laminating epoxy which needs a minimum of 10 hours to dry completely.
The last step is cutting off the excess paper around the wood and grinding the handle to the shape of the steel tang.