Jan, I believe you are correct. I have a number of knives in my collection with Micarta handles. This quote is from "The Blade Forum": "Micarta is basically epoxy with some added material to give it strength. That material is often paper, cotton cloth, linen, or canvas. Basically, it's alternating layers of epoxy, and paper (or whatever). This layering gives it the appearance and character of "grain." The epoxy can be colored. And whatever other material is used can also be colored and of various different textures. Paper and linen micarta have very fine grain."
What you usually see, I believe, is the linen in the epoxy.