First Picture Post: My Carbons

[J. MacDonald]

Here's my little Carbon Fiber collection:

Top to bottom they are:

Top - Benchmade 941 D2CF. Awesome Axis lock 941 variant with a D2 polished blade and a Carbon Fiber chassis.My current EDC favorite. Strong, light and sharp as hell.

Middle - Allen Elishewitz folder with Bolster Lock (more frame lock than liner lock), Carbon scales, Ti frame with cool jeweling on the inner faces and a sweet ATS-34 blade.

Bottom - William Henry T10-CF. Elegant and sharp. To me it's the smallest blade I'd really want to count on if I really needed a good knife suddenly.

Sorry about the lame photography. I've always resisted taking an active interest in photography as I know all those lenses and other accessories would keep me from buying pocket knives and computer parts (never mind single malts). Photography can be a most expensive hobby, right there with collecting watches!

jmx

 

[J. MacDonald]

Here we go.

 

[Megalobyte]

Hey, your pics arent too bad, try spending some time on Ebay and youll see some baaaaaaaad pics. On Ebay, it always amazes me that someone offers something for sale, or auction, and takes a picture that absolutely does not show you what the item is or what condition it's in. To call them blurry is a compliment, so, again, your pictures are actually on the good side. The only way to improve them really is to have the lighting a bit more evenly applied and not have light shining directly onto the blades which gives you some flashy areas. Not bad for a first attemtp though, and really, with some practice, you can take a picture that is really excellent, and it need not cost you any more than youre spending right now, its more a matter of playing around with lighting and backgrounds, which is free.

 

[holdanedge]

jmxcpter, you are the perfect guy to ask my question! do you find that the knives that rely on the carbon fiber for there frame(no liner) like one side of the william henry are not very strong? how long have you had them? do they delaminate? do they get all scratched up? do you think they will chip or crack if dropped onto a hard surface? the other thing i was wondering is, does the 941d2cf have full liners, or is the carbon fiber THE frame? for some reason i tend to think carbon fiber is real fragile and needs to be babied, when in reality it is probably some pretty stout stuff.


thank you,
holdanedge.

 

[J. MacDonald]

My first Carbon was the William Henry. After replacing it because I lost the one my wife gave me for our first Annniversary (ouch!) I liked it enough to rebuy the same model. I've dropped it a few times and it carries so little weight (kinetic energy) into the impact, it just seems to bounce. One of the reasons I rebought the same knife is that I was so impressed with it structurally. When I try to flex it laterally, the blade flexes before the handle.

On the 941D2CF the bulk of the handle is Carbon with only partial internal liners necessary to accomodate teh parts of the Axis lock. When I compare it to a regular aluminum handle 941, the D2CF will flex slightly more than the aluminum handle which doesn't flex at all. I haven't tried dropping that one yet. The D2CF model is noticeably lighter than a standard 941. It also has a warmer, more organic feel in the hand to me. If you think you like it, buy one while you can still get them. I'm not sure that BM will ever make them regular production models as I hear that th eCF tears hell out of their endmills (the cutters used to contour the handle) which are expensive to resharpen/replace.

Of course on the Elishewitz, the Carbon is just a cosmetic inlay with full Ti scales underneath providing all the structural strength.

In my opinion, Carbon Fiber is real tough stuff. Remember, this is the stuff that they make Formula One car chassis and stealth fighter planes out of. If you run it into a wall at 200mph, I'm sure it'll shatter, but I find it hard to believe you could break a 4" piece with force of hand.

I have some spacers made of CF for my mountain bike (to raise the handlebars). These spacers came in a set of three different sizes, the smallest being about 1/8" thick and 1/8 inch wide. I didn't use that small one on my bike and while I'm sure I could have broken it with a vise, but I couldn't even flex it with my bare hand.


jmx

 

[T. Erdelyi]

I onlt have 1 carbon fiber handled knife, with a CF laminated blade.

Aside from my issue with the VG10 blade it's a great knife, it is so light that it virtually leaves no print when sitting in a pocket, or hanging from an inside jacket pocket.

CF is tough and durable, hell I even have a CF business card someone gave me, I use it for a scraper to clean the frost of my winshield in the winter.

 

[holdanedge]

well, i got a bm770 that turned out to be one of only 50 for a test run of a new type of finish on the cf. i am always lucky that way! i did not even know that when i bought it. i thought they all looked like that.
anyways, it is impossible to flex this 1/4" thick 3.6" long handle with your hands. i think that cf is best used in small low stress items. it should hold up forever in those situations. i do not know why f1 cars are made from it, to me it does not seem strong enough for that. the problem is that with large pieces it will not bend at all. at the point where it gives it just snaps. that is why it is so ridgid. but, i think that is the whole idea of it. my skis that have seen many miles are showing little stress cracks all over the laquer but it does not seem to be through to the actual carbon fabric. the knife should not do this as the special edition one i got has no laquer (that is why it is different than the regular one). the regular one looks cooler, but this might hold up better getting scraped by keys, etc. also, i have recked one kestral bicycle by crashing it and shattering the fork. i recked a trek by just putting 9,000 miles on it. but when i complained to trek they said it is not fair of me to complain because i used it beyond the usable life of even a steel or aluminum frame.
the knife should last quite a long time being that it is so small which is what cf seems best suited for.


not even knowing about how long it will last, i like it so much that i put my umfaan plans on hold. instead i will get a little damascus folder next. the william henrys are all dang good. and with benchmade if you get real lucky you can get a custom quality knife. most of the benchmades i see have issues. you have to just sort through what the dealer has. with some looking around i have aquired quite a few real nice benchmades. if i can get 5 knives that are good for $100 each, i'd rather do that than get 1 $500 knife. the way i see it the guy with the most toys when he dies wins! (joking).



holdanedge.