What's your opinion of Carbon Fiber on Sebenzas?

Barry H

Barry H

Joined
Nov 3, 1999
Messages
1,695
I've been experimenting with designs for Sebenza fixed sides with a new batch of carbon fiber. It comes to me textured on one side. It has a very nice tactile grip to it, more so than, for example, a Spyderco D2 Military handle.

On the second one down, I left the texturing. The other CF ones were hand rubbed to 400 grit. The last one is some sort of mystery phenolic material a friend of mine gave me. It's 1/4" thick and bead blasted. It was harder for me to shape and contour compared to the CF. But as it's twice as thick as a stock Sebenza, it really fills the my XL hand. Happiness for me is having diffferent handle options!



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Let me know what you think!

BH
 
Can you cut bark mammoth for large annual seb?I've got 2 real nice pieces i would like done out of it and crk won't do custom work.
 
wow!! very cool, i would definitely buy one. or two!


that wood scale looks nice too!!
 
1.- How much does that will cost ? (not really much a problem)

2.- How can I order a couple ?

3.- Do you take credit card ?


Really sweet !.... congrats !
 
Now hold on a minute folks. First of all, thanks for the compliments!

I'm a hobbyist knife pimper. I love making my Sebenza more personal for my hands.

But,

It's not appropriate for me to come on this forum and talk prices. That's disrespectful to this forum.

If you happen to like what you see and think you want one for yourself, then take it off this forum and contact me directly.

I'll consider your request, but please do not infer that to mean I have the time to make one for you.

As I said before, "thanks for the vote of confidence!". But I'm not in the business of cranking these out to make a buck. I do them because I enjoy making them, when and if I have the extra time.

Respectively,
BH
 
Barry,
Your work is awesome. I especially like the top scale!!

Have you ever made any in micrata? If so, how do they compare to the CF?
 
My experience with a couple of small, carbon fiber, Benchmade folders is that the carbon fiber is soft. I dropped, accidently, one from only about 2 feed onto blacktop and there is now a nice little chunk out of carbon fiber.

Other than reducing the weight of the Sebenza how would it make the Sebenza better than the factory Ti non-lock side? It seems as if
the carbon fiber non-locking side plate would not be as strong as the Ti plate it is replacing.

If the carbon fiber is just for looks, why not use it as an inlay they way CRK does with wood and other materials?

Thanks,
Rich
 
Barry, as usual ...your work is totally off the hook and masterfully done:thumbup:. One of these days we'll get together to make me a thin Ti backing plate with a Stag scale overlay. Just love Stag grips.:thumbup: Similar to this Spydie I acquired.

Jules

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Rich357 said:
My experience with a couple of small, carbon fiber, Benchmade folders is that the carbon fiber is soft. I dropped, accidently, one from only about 2 feed onto blacktop and there is now a nice little chunk out of carbon fiber.

Other than reducing the weight of the Sebenza how would it make the Sebenza better than the factory Ti non-lock side? It seems as if
the carbon fiber non-locking side plate would not be as strong as the Ti plate it is replacing.

If the carbon fiber is just for looks, why not use it as an inlay they way CRK does with wood and other materials?

Thanks,
Rich
Click to expand...

I've never owned a Benchmade with carbon fiber handles, so I can't speak to the issue of softness, other than the obvious that it is softer than titanium.

Now strength is a different issue. don't confuse softness with strength. Those are two different physical properties. I don't think the military would have used carbon fiber in F-22's if they didn't think that it was a strong, viable material.

I've dropped several different knives in my past, and ya, they get dinged up, wood handles, phenolic or titanium. Not a big deal to me. Now if a major chunk where to break off, sure, I'd be worried. So far though, I have no reason to doubt the overall strength characteristic of CF.

And as far as using Cf in the knife industry, Tom Mayo, Kit Carson, Trace Rinaldi, to name a few, must feel that it has some merit in their designs.

Personally, I think it has different tactile properties that make it more attractive to me than titanium. Ever have to reach for a metal handled knife in cold wet weather? It sucks, I know cause I'm a journeyman carpenter that works outside in sucky conditions. I'd rather have a handle that has some texture to it so I don't lose grip.

So, to answer your question, Rich, better for you isn't neccessarily better for me:)

I also personally find hand rubbed CF attractive. I have a very nice Carson model 4 in carbon fiber that looks really great in dress slacks. Matter of fact, it looks tremendous worn with jeans, too:D
 
westllen said:
Barry, as usual ...your work is totally off the hook and masterfully done:thumbup:. One of these days we'll get together to make me a thin Ti backing plate with a Stag scale overlay. Just love Stag grips.:thumbup: Similar to this Spydie I acquired.

Jules
Click to expand...


I've epoxied fancy wood panels to thin CF, Jules, it works like a charm. I'm sure the same could be done with titanium.
 
Barry H said:
I've epoxied fancy wood panels to thin CF, Jules, it works like a charm. I'm sure the same could be done with titanium.
Click to expand...



well Barry ...I better start look'in for some good looking Stag scales. Then we'd be good to go.:thumbup:
 
Yikes Jules!! That would be a challenging mod. Now you're making me nervous////////////////
 
Barry,

Thanks for your very thorough responses via email.

Was wondering if you could post some pictures of those CF scales ON the Sebbies themselves... I'm just curious how they look + blades. Sure others would like to see them as well.
 
CF epoxied to titanium should not be a problem. I have modded knives with titanium and CF epoxied together and they worked fine plus the titanium does not have to be thick to be easily workable. As an added measure pinning or screwing them would also be okay.
 
I will try and post a pic when I have the carbon fiber on one of my sebbies.
 
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