Nope it is a barbers use W&B 1 inch :)
Printable View
Nope it is a barbers use W&B 1 inch :)
jdoc, I contacted the composit craft folks and they sent me some samples. They sent me some black in different cell sizes and one piece of yellow. I made a set of black scales (1/4" cells) for my Spyderco Sage4. The samples aren't big enough for a razor. I'm a little unhappy with the finish I got. I was hoping for something a bit shinier. The material now is about 3/16" thick and not very translucent. I imagine black is not the best choice for translucency. :) Anyway, you mentioned what you used to get the shine. Can you be a bit more specific about the products you used and where to get them? All I used was some stropping paste and strop sprays on Dremel felt wheels. I want to get the scales shinier if I can. I do like them like this but would like to have more options. I still need to do a touch up or two on these scales but I don't think I can get them any shinier with what I have. Thanks for any help.
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/y...psab289e14.jpg
Oh yeah, on the rear corner of a scale one of the cells material fell out leaving the aluminum showing. I was able to glue a tiny piece in it's place and now you can't tell it happened. Have you had anything like that happen? I talked to Kim at the company about it. He said this almost never happens with the material with smaller cells. Also some people glue the c-tek to a thin liner of various colors and use clear c-tek on top. That keeps this from happening as well as creates some great looking handles. That sounds interesting.
Jack
jdoc
Those red scales are fantastic.
Luis
To do the polish i sanded up to 1200 grit then took it to the buff wheel. The compound i used is a eastwood compound i used the tripoil, stainless then white. It took some time to get it how i wanted and you need to go slow on it. My guess is the small piece fell out because it got to hot for just a moment breaking the bond in between the 2 materials. I have not used a backing on any of it yet but im going to give it a try. Heat is your biggest enemy with c-tek as it only takes a little bit to warp it or break the bond. After you buff it all up give it a wipe down with wd40 to get a real shins. I hope this helps and that you get them how you want but i think they look great how you have them and look forward to seeing more of it. Let me know how it go's.
All these scales are gorgeous!!!
Congrats.
:chapeau
Wow! I havent custom build scales yet... You guys set the bar really high for me! :)
The c-tek manufacturer sent me some sample pieces. Some is small enough to make the knife scales I pictured but not quite long enough for a razor handle. I ordered some red bone and hope to combine it with some black c-tek to make the material longer. Not sure if I will put the bone at one end of the handle or put it in the middle with the balck c-tek on both ends. I'll wait and see the bone first when it arrives. Without seeing it I think I have these options and any should look good:
1. Black c-tek on each end with red bone in the middle.
2. Red bone at each end with the c-tek in the middle.
3. cut the bone and c-tek in several pieces and stagger the materials.
We'll see. If I can get it looking half as good as the red razor handle I'll be REALLY happy.
One thing I'm unsure of is gluing the materials together. I'm wondering if I should drill small holes into the materials to insert metal pins in where the pieces meet. C-tek is somewhat transparent and I don't want to see pins inside the material. Has anyone tried anything like this? Is 2 ton epoxy strong enough to hold c-tek glued to bone? There shouldn't be any excessive force applied to the handle. I have some spare orange G-10 liners for knife handles I can use as a base but I'll need to see the materials together to see if the colors match.
Jack
I just added some red and yellow scale liners to the order with the bone. I should be able to get a color combination with the red bone, black c-tek and then orange or yellow or red liners. The liners as backing will make the handles strong and I won't have to worry about the pieces coming apart at a glue joint. I'll post a picture when I'm done if I'm not TOO ashamed of the result. :)