Quote:
Originally Posted by 10es&
David that handle is absolutely beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seeing that knife of yours and hearing your sponge idea makes me want to give it one more try.
Wiping up a soupy mess of carbon is much more appealing to me than having itchy forearms all day.
Would you be willing to tell me how you got that finish with the carbon? I have seen a picture on this forum of a carbon handle that was finished with CA glue and a buffing wheel and it looked pretty good to me. Is there any other ways to get a nice finish on carbon?
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Good Lord, knifemakers and their super glue! They probably hose their wives, kids, pets, furniture, cars, and lawnmowers with the stuff! IT'S AN ADHESIVE, NOT A FINISH!!! Okay, I feel a little better now. ;-)
I appreciate the compliment. I've played around with finishing CF. I tried sanding that handle to 600 grit and giving it a buff like I would ironwood or a stabilized burl, but it really looked awful. The shine wasn't clean and even, and it was muddy looking. I re-sanded it to 400 grit with wet/dry paper, then carefully "scrubbed" it with red Scotchbrite. I've found that this type of soft satin finish lets the layers of CF cloth show through in a chatoyant fashion like some wood. It also gives it a very smooth feel, different from other materials with the same finish. It's also easy to maintain and touch up if necessary. I do not wax it. It seems that coatings and buffings don't agree with CF.
I've attached another couple of pictures. The speckled folder has the same CF as the fixed blade, from the 787 airplane. The smaller folder is one I made around 3 years ago with CF from Halpern. It was 1/8" sheet. It's weave is finer than the 787. Both were finished the same way and have similar appearances.
Wet grinding is nasty, especially this time of the year. You will get wet. If you get a lot of the black sludge on your clothes you should consider stripping down to your skivvies before going inside. Working it wet does make it much safer for you since you're keeping the grindings and dust wet and all in a small space that can be cleaned up. CF is probably one of the most hazardous materials we can work with, but if you keep the dust out of your lungs (and off your skin) you should be just fine.
Carbon fiber certainly is a different animal, but it makes a cool knife.
David