I would like to show you the method which I use to create thinner pieces of G10 from a thicker piece. Very often in my knifemaking projects I need to use a G10 of a thickness of about 3mm and have to face tha fact that I usually had only standard 6mm G10. During my first years of knifemaking I didn't knew that G10 is so easy to split. When I wanted to make thinner piece I just grinded it with my sand grinder to the thickness I want. It is not a pleasant way to do because a lot of harmful dust is created. My friend knifemaker told me about thesplitting and I have created my own method to do this.
Before I start please note that only G10 can be split like this - Micarta or CF can not and you will destroy it trying to do the same. Also please note that splitting is very often the cheapest way to get material of proper size, as two pieces of 3mm G10 are always more expensive that one piece of 6mm G10.
To show better how the metdod works I have chose transparent piece of G10.
To show better how the metdod works I have chose transparent piece of G10.
1. List of tools that we need to do the split is very short:
- Hammer. It can be a plastic or a wooden hummer but I am using steel hammer with a paper cover because I don't want to make scratches on the back of my knife.
- Vise. I am using little Proxxon vise as it is very handy.
- Knife. The best knife for this job is a big flat knife with thin blade, but not a kitchen knife, it is not stron enough
- Knife. The best knife for this job is a big flat knife with thin blade, but not a kitchen knife, it is not stron enough
2. I have 4,5mm thick G10 and I need to have it 2 mm thick, so I need to aim for the center of the sheet and hammer it. The knife should go straight between layers... Aiming and first hit It is the most important andf most difficult part of the process.
3. Unfortunatelly it does not always go straight after a first hit. After one or two centimetersI saw that The knife didnt go straight between layers but it go through them. It happens. That is why I needed to start from other side. Because material is transparrent you can see my two attempts in the material.
4. On the second attempt it went perfect. It is easy to seen after about 3 hits. Now I can hit it on one side and another just like during batoning of the block of wood. It will go straight to the end. Nothing to worry about now.
6. When knife goes almost to the end of material it is time to remove the G10 from the vise and hit one more time to finally split both parts.
7. As you see it is not perfect. It is never perfect but this time there is more damage than usual because my first try was not good. That is why layers in the corner are delaminated.
8. The white color on the edges of layers means that the layer will be easy to delaminated when started from this edge.
9. As you I get it almost perfectly splitted into half and I have two G10 shhets with thicknes of about 2mm as I wanted.
10. Of course I need to remove the deleminated layers. I could do it all by grinding but there is usuallybetter way to do that. Some layers can very often be removed with a knife. Not always, because some type of G10 are not as easy to delaminate.
11. This time I was able to remove the whole layer.
12. I would not be able to remove more material with a knife. I could grind it down but I don't need to, as sheet of this size is even more than I need.
13. I have the material that I wanted. Material with perfect thickness to make new scales for Kershaw Chill :)
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