Recently my knifemaker supply store received a shipment of DymaLux wood laminate. I bought a couple of 1/4″ thick panels in the Buckskin and Camo Supreme varieties to test as scales on both kitchen and hunting knives. The first knife is nearly done. See photo.
If you are unfamiliar with DymaLux, it is a birch plywood product made by Cousineau Wood Products in Maine USA. Very thin sheets are dyed, then bonded together with phenolic resin resulting in a very tough laminate. If you want a waterproof, impact and heat resistant scale product this just might be for you.
For those of you who have been around a while might remember “Dymondwood” laminates. They went out of business after the 2014 fire at the plant and never returned. Kudos for Cousineau for picking up the slack.
When cutting the material the first thing I noticed is that is has a distinct phenolic smell like Formica or similar counter-top laminates. I cut the scale shapes with a wood band saw without any issues. It is considerably a lot harder than regular plywood, more like Micarta, so one has to go slow and not force it. The product shaped quickly with 36 and 60 grit belts on the grinder. Some hand wet sanding with 120 and 220 grit wet/dry paper went very smoothly and shaping the finer detail was a piece of cake. For finishing, I used abrasive pad with a light buff on a clean cotton wheel. It will get very glossy on the buffing wheel if that’s the look you are going for. If you want to tone down the shine and matte it out a bit, try a grey or green abrasive pad.
All in all, a very workable product.
Dan