The Truth
I hope everyone is ready for this:
Hello Joshua.
I hope you are ready. Here it goes, with an okay for publishing:
Here is all you ever wanted, or needed, to know about Micarta:
Westinghouse Electric Corporation, in 1911, started producing industrial
laminates for electrical insulation and, soon thereafter, started
producing decorative laminates (Formica was a spin-off of this
operation) and marketed both products under the trade name "Micarta." As
a trade name it applied to all laminate products and, although the name
is often used generically, it is not grade-specific and should not be
used to describe a particular laminate absent a specific grade
designation.
In 1994/1995 the Westinghouse Micarta Division was sold to International
Paper and run for several years as their Decorative Products Division
while remaining located in Hampton, SC. There was at least one other
owner of the facility subsequent to IP.
Eventually, the Hampton plant was closed, the assets were bought by
Norplex, and the equipment moved to Postville, IA, around 2004/2005.
Norplex is now known as Industrial Laminates Norplex, Inc., and markets
products under the trade name Norplex-Micarta High-Performance
Composites.
The original so-called "Ivory-Micarta" product was Westinghouse grade
FR-2. It was a laminate made of paper sheets soaked in an epoxy resin
and baked and pressed into a solid plate. The ivory color was
incidental to it being an industrial product. In fact, color has never
been the main goal of any industrial laminate - no color is ever
guaranteed or expected to be consistent from run to run - which always
frustrates users who think this is a decorative, rather than an
industrial, product. The true purpose of the FR-2 was to be an
electrical insulator with different characteristics than the more common
XX and XXX paper grades, which used phenolic resins.
When Atlas Billiards tried to make ferrules from this material, they
cracked. We worked with the Westinghouse lab to tweak the resin content
and increase the bond strength. It took several iterations until we
finally got a product that worked. The result was what we called
Ivorine-3(r). This was the primary high-end ferrule material for many
years. However, after the Micarta business changed hands multiple
times, the new technicians were unable to consistently hold the color,
and the cost of the material went through the roof. Now most laminate
ferrules are made from a Linen cloth and melamine resin combination.
As for asbestos laminates: there were two asbestos laminate sheet
grades: A and AA. I doubt that either of these was produced in the USA
since the mid-1960's, but they were made into the 1970's in England and
Europe and likely other areas as well. I suppose that someone at some
time may have used these grades in a cue, but I can't imagine why they
would have. The material was unattractive at best: it looked like a
heavy-weave gray burlap cloth. Atlas has had no connection with these
grades since I have been in the company, which is 1972.
I hope this helps lay certain misconceptions to rest.
Richard Welch, Vp Atlas Fibre Company.
