Thread: Carbon Fiber scales, finishing?

I can get 1mm, 2mm or 3mm thick carbon plate cut in whatever shape I want. However, I'm uncertain how those of you who work with carbon fiber achieve the rounded edges.

Are you using a polyurethane and then sanding the rounded edges, etc?

you can sand with micromesh all the way to 12k grit, or you can epoxy coat it.

I like round corners, and contouring the face of my scales.

With carbon fiber, it has a nice factory clear coat and that provides that holographic effect. When you get down to the raw carbon as you round things, you loose that clear. Also the carbon fiber has little pits in it when you remove the clear. For that matter, even the clear may have pits in it.

Due to all that, after shaped, I like to coat in epoxy resin.

Here is a pic, sanded to 400.


More more work to go shaping than above pic, but from 400 I make ready for clear coat. One or two coats of epoxy resin clear coat applied. If multi coats, two days apart if needed. I use System3 MirrorCoat. This restores a thick clear layer to bring back the fibers 3D look.



From there, grind off the drips. Flat sand any dips, or imperfections from the clear coat. Also the epoxy resin tends to leave edges a little thicker than I like, so I make the edges thinner too. This is same no matter what media you clear coat. I'll start at 800 or 1000 for this type of final shape, taking the edges back down.

Next is keep going up in grits. Using MicroMesh to 12000, and then hand polish. I don't like the buffers on epoxy resin since it will always score some place.

That's it. Now you're ready to pin and assemble your razor. This one was done with torx fasteners. You sort of get an idea of the 3d on the pic when apart, and curves on the assembled image.

dirtychrome, what thickness carbon fiber sheet do you tend to use for your scales?

Originally Posted by steelwindmachine

dirtychrome, what thickness carbon fiber sheet do you tend to use for your scales?

These were done with 1/8", but sanding and rounding down down the outboard face took down to about 3/16" thick.

I always sand off the factory finish on CF as well. After that, I round the faces of the scales on various belts, moving from 50grit -> 80 -> 220 ->400.
Then I switch to hand sanding, and I hand sand 220-400-800-1500

After that, I just buff. I assume if you micromeshed farther than 1500 grit, you could probably get nearly the same results as the epoxy above...at least when it comes to seeing the patterns in the CF clearly. If you want that mirror-look, that reflects stuff, I guess epoxy would be the way to go then, as shown above.

Anyway, here is what a set sanded to 1500 looks like:

Where do you get those Torx fasteners? What size? Thanks

Originally Posted by davemillard

Where do you get those Torx fasteners? What size? Thanks

This hardware is from usaknifemaker.com , under their "folder knife parts'. The barrels and screws will be longer than required and need to be trimmed down. They sell the black screws separately.

You need to be certain your committed to the idea of torx fasteners on your blade. The Pivot Barrels are 1/8" outside diameter. This is larger than the 1/16 pin we are normally familiar with.

The razor's pivot will need to be drilled out to fit the 1/8" Pivot Barrel. Also need to drill out the scales to fit the large Pivot Barrels.

The final assembled straight razor has a solid feel when the razor is swung open or closed. No hint of the blade wanting to twist in the scales, that I think is due to the larger size. Just make sure you really want to keep it that way, other wise later you gotta fill that pivot hole back up with a sleeve or something.

Great Job, Walt! The width in the carbon fibers seems wider than most! A different look. Seems very strong. Tough, beautiful stuff!
Tom

Thanks for the info!