ZT0770CF owners. How is your carbon fiber?

Rival1314 said:
I can tell you from handling tons of CF over the past several years that this is very normal, especially on a production line. When mass producing CF, even high quality low void CF like in the ZTs you are going to get everlapping layers of CF, and many slight variations due to surface sanding and finishing. Some people consider it a flaw as they are use to presentation grade CF that has been picked over (usually in small batches) to avoid such flaws. This is generally reflected in the higher pricing. On a production piece they are going to be slightly less picky, but as others have stated, it makes each piece unique. Thexturing the CF can help avoid this, but the satin finish of the ZT scales really make them unique, and give you the opportunity to get a better looking piece of carbon fiber at an affordable price.
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I'm pretty sure Rival has handled more cf than everyone else in this thread combined.
 
Scurvy092 said:
I understand. Its a few steps above a sticker.

The fact of the matter is that the reason spyderco cf looks so good is because its a laminate. That's why the cf on the usa ones are usually peel ply.

The carbon fiber on my caly 3 had the same issues all pure carbon fiber does. Its the process of laying of the matt's, adding the binding agent and compressing it all that causes the variations in the patterning. That why the 'carbon fiber' on the Taiwan looks perfect is because it hasn't gone through that process.

I can't wait to see all these threads come out when the Rubicon hits the streets. Its full cf and its going to have the same variations.
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It'll be interesting to see the CF on the Spyderco Rubicon. At a street price of $280-$300 the CF better be perfect!

I think ZT has gotten better with the 0770CF. You can tell from my 0770CF (middle one in the picture) from April and the 0770CFM390 (bottom one in the picture) from last week. The older one has inconsistent pattern near the pivot area. The newer one is perfect.

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ToddM said:
Aesthetics is by far the biggest benefit to CF in a knife scale application and it's why you pay a premium, so if the aesthetics aren't right, I'd say send it in for replacement.
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I agree that aesthetics are important in a CF application. But from my perspective, the combination of strength and reduced weight are the real benefits of CF. Had it not been for the very real possibility that the 0770CF will prove to be a one-off model for ZT, I might have just kept it as the patterning wasn't that bad and it didn't affect the performance of the knife. But I have very little confidence that ZT will ever build another lightweight (i.e., under 4 ounce) knife. And if I was only going to have one ZT in my collection, I wanted it to be right.
 
I have a 0770cf coming in tomorrow morning. You guys have me interested...

It came in. M390 and it's beautiful, and the CF seems to be entirely consistent. Very pleased.
 
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Yeah, I'm another person who has one with a little shift in the pattern. It's toward the middle of the knife lengthwise on the non lock side. It's a little annoying, but I'm not worried enough about it to send it back or make a fuss. I think it's just something that happens with perfectly flat cf scales. I make a lot of CF scales but they're always 3d machined and you don't see something like this, it's not that it's not there, but the curvature hides it. Also a lot of other flat panel scales have a final top layer that's there specifically to be the top visible layer. They're usually ultra consistent and seems to be cleared over or sealed. Personally I like the raw CF feel of the 0770 better, even with it's slight cosmetic flaw.
 
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