Carbon Fiber Laminate

T

TrojanSteel

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Jul 22, 2013
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Does anyone know how carbon fiber laminate is affixed to G10, is it some kind of glue? Any stories of the laminate coming off?
 
My guess is it's the last layer in the construction before the resin is added, therefore it's still a part of the unit...
 
G-10 is a fiberglass material held together by a plastic resin like epoxy. Usually the resin is kicked over by a catalyst. Carbon fiber is similar except the fiber glass is replaced by Carbon fiber. I haven't heard of any hybrid handles which contain both G-10 and Carbon fiber.
 
tiguy7 said:
G-10 is a fiberglass material held together by a plastic resin like epoxy. Usually the resin is kicked over by a catalyst. Carbon fiber is similar except the fiber glass is replaced by Carbon fiber. I haven't heard of any hybrid handles which contain both G-10 and Carbon fiber.
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Every single taichung taiwan made spyderco with cf handles uses a hybrid of g10 and cf. Only the top 10% or so is cf, and I assume its done that way from the beginning, and while it technically is 2 materials they are epoxied that way effectively making one single sheet.

There are also g10/cf hybrids available in custom scales, but layered every other rather than the cf on the top. Cuscadi's cf micarta for example is glass fiber and carbon fiber llayered alternately then soaked in resin and pressed and heated to make one composite material.
 
If you thin them, I suggest you sand them under water, that dust is no picnic to breath. Time to break out the scuba gear... Russ
 
i chipped the scale on my gayle bradle yaround the lanyard hole, from my observations :

the carbon fiber outside sheet is obviously not the last layer before resin, if it was the weave would not be exposed like that, theres no way to keep the resin under the surface when making a block of material.

the carbon fiber is one weave only, not 10% or anything, just the thickness of one sheet of woven fiber.

this layer is glued (epoxy i guess) to regular peel ply textured black g10. i can see the peel ply texture exposed on mine. i'm pretty sure mine was a lemon as i chipped a very small piece when dropping rhe knife iirc and a portion came just peeling it with my fingers. no sign of any kind of glue on the CF sheet or on the peel ply surface underneath.

like i said i'm convinced there was a problem with mine, if gluing is done properly i dont see how a sheet of CF epoxied to textured g10 could separate. thats probably as durable as a solid block with the texture as a bonus.

i'll look for pictures of the chipped part if i find some time.
 
pwet said:
i chipped the scale on my gayle bradle yaround the lanyard hole, from my observations :

the carbon fiber outside sheet is obviously not the last layer before resin, if it was the weave would not be exposed like that, theres no way to keep the resin under the surface when making a block of material.

the carbon fiber is one weave only, not 10% or anything, just the thickness of one sheet of woven fiber.

this layer is glued (epoxy i guess) to regular peel ply textured black g10. i can see the peel ply texture exposed on mine. i'm pretty sure mine was a lemon as i chipped a very small piece when dropping rhe knife iirc and a portion came just peeling it with my fingers. no sign of any kind of glue on the CF sheet or on the peel ply surface underneath.

like i said i'm convinced there was a problem with mine, if gluing is done properly i dont see how a sheet of CF epoxied to textured g10 could separate. thats probably as durable as a solid block with the texture as a bonus.

i'll look for pictures of the chipped part if i find some time.
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Lemons happen, regardless of material. OTOH, one of the most often heard complaints about glossy "all CF" scales (and, to a lesser extent, about the matte ones) is that the surface layer of resin chipped around at least one screw, pin, or the lanyard tube. Compared with those, complaints about the laminate have been few and far between.
 
Since Carbon fiber is stronger and lighter than fiberglass, my assumption would be that the main reason to make hybrid handles is to save money.
 
The Deacon said:
Am sure you could, just as you could thin down a solid G-10, or solid CF composite, scale. However, unless you want a knife with really thin scales, why do it?
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the laminate is so thin that removing it hardly made a difference in the overall thickness of the scales.
 
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tiguy7 said:
Since Carbon fiber is stronger and lighter than fiberglass, my assumption would be that the main reason to make hybrid handles is to save money.
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Those differences would be critical in an airframe, race car chassis, or bicycle frame. For material being used as a custom dashboard insert for a car, decorative trim on a money clip, or the scales of a 3" to 4" bladed pocket knife, especially when, as with most Spyderco knives, it's being used primarily as a decoration over steel liners thick enough to be considered "stand alone" handle slabs, they're irrelevant. The weight difference, for example, would be a couple grams at most. As an example, the G1-0 Caly 3.5 weighs 89 grams, while the CF Caly 3.5 weighs 88 grams. I'm more inclined to believe the laminates are used in order to allow the look of CF with surface textures that are not available in full CF composites.


four_shore said:
the laminate is so thin that removing it hardly made a difference in the overall thickness of the scales.
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If by "laminate" you mean the CF outer layer, that may be true, but it would make even less sense than removing the G-10 inner layers, which was what I assumed you were interested in doing, since "laminate" could refer to either.
 
the cf outer layer is what i was referring to.

it's very thin and fairly easy to remove. personally, i never liked the look of cf...
 
While laid up handle materials like G-10, Carbon fiber, and various Micartas are not as delicate as mother of pearl or elephant ivory, I would not recommend dropping any of them on the sidewalk. My butter fingers have screwed up a few decent handles.
 
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