Made my Own - Carbon Fiber

Laredo7mm

Laredo7mm

Joined
Jul 8, 2002
Messages
1,240
I have an order for a knife with carbon fiber scales. I couldn't find any of the commercial carbon fiber that I liked. Everything I saw was the standard 2x2 twill weave, it looks OK but i wanted something a bit nicer. So I had to make my own. ;)

This is made out of a very tight weave carbon fiber fabric. Instead of a 2x2 weave it has a weave that goes over seven stands, then under one, giving a more subtle looks to it. I also used the best expoxy I could find, made by West Systems. Definitely a heck of alot more expensive than I thought it would be, but it worked great and does not yellow with age.

Along with making the scales out of the carbon fiber, I am going to try to make a pocket clip out of it too. That should be interesting to say the least.

Oh yeah, just so you know, I wore a respirator, body suit, and gloves while making it, so no need to tell me about the safety hazards. ;) :D ;)

Let me know what you think:

carbon1.jpg


carbon2.jpg
 
All right, Sean. Thats enough now, your making everyone look bad. Stop doing all this amazing crap like autos and homemade carbon fiber and swords. Just make a crapy knife and put it in a crapy sheath and be done with it.


Michael
 
ok got to know cause i was wanting to make some too different colors at that did you use a press or did you bag it and how did you lay it up pls i could use the info thanks adding linkto show colors you can buy http://www.shopmaninc.com/hybrids.html[/URL]
 
Thanks all for the compliments and questions. It is not that hard to do just some nasty work. I did not weave my own fabric, I bought the pre-woven carbon fiber fabric. As you can see from the link butcher_block provided, the stuff is readily available from many different suppliers in many different weaves.

The epoxy is the most expensive part, but it goes a long way. The Devcon and similar you can buy from the hardware will not cut it. It is too thick. The stuff I bought is a 3:1 mix ratio and has the consistancy of maple syrup.

I just used a simple process: Cut out the carbon fiber fabric strips, wet them with the epoxy, layer them together, clamp the mess up, let the epoxy cure, unclamp the billet and you are done. I did not use any fancy presses or vacuum bagging, just shade tree mechanics type stuff.

butcher_block - As far as the colored stuff (kevlar and carbon), I was told that the kevlar will fray and get "hairy" when sanded/ground to final shape. If you make some of that you will probably have to do a "skim coat" of epoxy after everything is to final shape.

Thanks again for the compliments, I will let the shop elves know you appreciate their work. ;)
 
I had that fuzzing problem with a composite I made with mylar and polyester fibers (metallic light blue lame'), and went to finer grits earlier than normal, and superglued, sanded, superglued, sanded, etc... to get it smooth.
Most of the plastics in a composite will do this, as they do not cleanly abrade, but smear, stretch, or melt instead.
I wish I had a picture.
It was flashy, looked nice, but I wouldn't do it on a fighter... :rolleyes: :D
 
The carbon fiber that we make the boats out of, has glue on one side. They put layers together and put it under vacuum for 6 to 8 hours in a 200 degree oven. They told me that I can have the scraps. It will also make nice inserts for sheaths. ;)
 
I made some tubing a while back for another project I was working on, the resin and hardener I got was near odorless, but I sure was glad I didn't get it on my hands, and espensive too!
 
Sean's "can do" list is a heck of a lot longer than his "can't do" list! I can't think of anything you CAN"T do, Sean. You good, fella. That is some beautiful looking stuff.
 
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