BartW Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 Hello Guys; Warning; picture heavy ! As you know, I have quite a few friends in the railway company (I don't work there). And I found some intresting material for knife handles, that is very reminescent of pakkawood or dymondwood. They used to use it for connecting two sections of track together isolated electrically. They are huge chuncks of 2 foot long 4 inch by 2 inch blocks, painted black. I cleaned one up, cut some blocks and fitted some knives with it, and I like the material. Doesn't stink like micarta, machines like micarta, and looks like wood, but is absolutely impervious to oil, water, temperature changes ... And the best part; they got tons of these, and they all need to be trown away because they are switching to some tougher synthetic electrically isolating thing (with is essentially a block white-greenish fibreglass, which is not fun to work with :-) ). Anyway; pictures tell more. First is a stack of 6 of these plates; with some cut off parts and cleaned up sections.; then some details of the material under the black paint when cleaned, then some knife handles. enjoy & what do you think of this stuff ? It's obviously pakkewood or dymondwood of sorts, but with beech layers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 Sure does make a good looking knife handle. Too bad we don't have something like that here in the states (as far as I know). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 18, 2020 Share Posted February 18, 2020 I'd want to know a bit more about how it was treated first...Remember the Mother Earth News article about how to make kitchen cabinets from ammo crates---followed quickly by the DON'T USE AMMO CRATES NEAR FOOD, treat sawdust and wood from ammo crates as toxic waste, we're really really sorry! Quite a few superfund sites associated with RR treating wood here in the states. And yes it looks great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BartW Posted February 18, 2020 Author Share Posted February 18, 2020 Wel actually We know how it was created. it's impregrated beech laminates with clear epoxy under high pressure and temperature. Made in the UK somewhere; and they are called epoxy welding plates :-) And when grinding them, they actually smells like epoxy; which is much more pleasant then working micarta. And it doesn't crumble or chip, but acts more like micarta. My mill eats it for breakfast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted February 18, 2020 Share Posted February 18, 2020 13 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: Quite a few superfund sites associated with RR treating wood here in the states. Mostly because of RR ties being pressure treated with creosote, which was (if memory serves) the first scientifically identified carcinogen. That's beautiful stuff, BartW. I'm going to have to see if there's a source here in the States. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 18, 2020 Share Posted February 18, 2020 Good to know the details; take the standard epoxy precautions and people should be fine working with it. I like Beech, both in the tree and as a wood to work with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted February 18, 2020 Share Posted February 18, 2020 A little internet research tells me that this stuff is generically known as "densified laminated wood" and is made by compressing wood veneer and resin under high pressure (think squeezing a piece of plywood to half its regular thickness). It has a number of industrial uses, mainly in transformers and other applications where you need high strength and/or low electrical conductivity. A google search for "Densified wood" and "insulating fish plate" will give results practically identical to your photo above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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