Originally asked in 'writing instrument', suggested that some of you guys may have an idea. Why doesn't someone manufacture a pen body out of micarta? It seems like a material with a lot of versatility and plenty of opaque colors. Are there inherent qualities that make it not good for pens or is it just an unexplored medium?

Been there, tried that... the micarta rod that I purchased had some "interesting" characteristics on the lathe. the resin turned to powder as it was worked, and left a rough surface, which was easily sanded smooth, BUT, there were imperfections within the material itself, which resulted in discolorations, light and dark areas in the barrel. I have another 18" of it, about 1/2" in diameter, and I'm still sitting on it, trying to decide if I want to try again, or keep is as a nice escrima stick.

Anyone else tried it? Any better luck with finishing?

(I got the notion from Nakaya's website, which shows a nice micarta pen, but they stopped production for some reason.)

-George

Micarta is layers of cloth or paper bonded together with resin. Usually an epoxy.

It can be very strong and have nice woodgrain type characteristics or it can be really nasty. Depends on the quality of the material and the type.

Its commonly used on knife handles and often has a very "matte" machined/ground finish for texture and grip. This is common with cloth micarta, if you want a finer finish then you should consider paper micarta.

Also it may need to be stabilized like wood with layers of cyanoacrylate (crazyglue) to give a smooth shiny finish.

Not the easiest material to work with due to its variability.

Though I have not worked with"micarta" per se I have made pens out of paper

Eagle, that's very interesting pen!!

Here's Sailor's Micarta pen (linen micarta) in a Japanese blog.
http://zeak.air-nifty.com/main/2007/01/post_bc90.html