Making Micarta

[Mortblanc]

Micarta is on the back burner at the moment. I am going through 2 week long stretches where the temps never reach zero interspaced by a day at 10C returning to below zero for another two weeks.

It is too cold to cure micarta in the shop and the fumes are overwhelming inside the house. I will get on it when spring breaks.

I now have several blades to rehandle since I have been attacked by some insect that consumes horn. Horn is one of my favorite handle materials and I discovered two of my knives completely without handles a few days ago. One handle was completely gone and two more had tunnels chewed through several places. Some kind of insect larvae present so moth balls went into the knife bin.

I had not been into that bin in several months and there were more than 75 blades present. Fortunately these critters do not like antler or bone.

They have not traveled to the knives in the rest of the house or the good ones I keep in the safe.