Homemade camo handles

R

Roger

Well-Known Member
I've been working on making some camo handles for a gift knife. I tried using old school camo and fiberglass resin. The resin was very dark and I really didn't like the way the pattern looked. My wife, bless her heart, didn't like it either and scrounged me up some of the new digital pattern. Instead of using the fiberglass I used some two part polymer stuff. It came out much better. The fiberglass is too brittle and shiny. The other is hard but it has a much better texture to it. I coated the 'press' with Vaseline and then put down some plastic sheet that adhered very will to the Vaseline and held it in place on the press. What took the most time was cutting the strips of cloth.

camo 008.jpgcamo 006.jpgcamo 011.jpgcamo 003.jpgcamo 001.jpgcamo 015.jpgcamo 009.jpg
 
Isn't it amazjng how well our wives grasp the information we ramble about as they pretend to be interested. Then they surprise us and help us solve problems. Now, if I could get mine to not be quite so critical of my work. Every time I make a knife and she asks to see it I feel as though I'm standing before a panel of judges.

Handle material is lookin good. When do we get to see the practical application of the stuff?

I may have to try my hand at this sometime soon. I have several old uniforms that are too beat up to wear anymore.
 
Yes sir, wives are a strange lot. :) I am going to try and finish it up this weekend and will put up a picture. The piece came out of the press last night and I haven't had time to do anything with it yet.

Murph, The fabric my wife got was from a local store, She got two patterns, the one you see was a lighter more brown/tan pattern and had USMC and the 'Globe & Anchor' right in the pattern. The other was more green/brown and I couldn't find any sort of ID markings. The knife is going to an Army Ranger, is there a difference enough in the patterns so that he'll be able to tell it's 'Jar Head' stuff? All I know is 'Tiger Stripe' and OD and I'd hate for him to throw it away. :3:

Another question for any currently active duty people. With the newer web gear (if it's even called that anymore) what would be the best sheath for it?
 
As for the material used, as long as you are sculpting the handle and not leaving any flat spots, the USMC pattern won't be noticeable. As for the "kit" (web gear), all issue and most all after market kit is MOLLE compatable. If you are making a kydex sheath, I would measure the holes to fit a large Tek-Lok. Large Tek-Loks and MOLLE-Loks have the same hole pattern.

If you need help designing a sheah that will be compatible, just let me know and I'll be more than happy to help you out.
 
Thanks for the offer, I'll take you up on it. I have some tan Kydex I was planning on using. Do you know of any place I can see the mountings and maybe some examples of how sheaths are attached? Would a Kydex sheath need some sort of retainer with snap or is it rigid enough when formed to hold the knife and still make it accessable? Hope you know I was joking with the 'Jar' comment, nobody I'd rather fight with, and hate to fight against more than a Marine.
 
looks good, that is about the way i make it. yea my wife is in charge of quality control. roger keep up the good work.
 
Check in the Tutorial and Video sub forums, Tracy has a kydex tutorial on one of them and there are a bunch of how-to's on YouTube.

Carey
 
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