Carbon fiber supplier for USA handmade knife makers

 Sierra Composites has been the leading supplier of carbon fiber sheets as well as silver texalium sheets and laminates to USA handmade knife makers for many years. We supply thin carbon fiber sheet material for use as handle scale inlays, and we supply thicker laminates for handle scales that can be profiled. The handle scales are particularly important since the carbon fiber layup has to be in the correct orientation in order to have the correct look once the handle is profiled down.  Since our silver sheets have the same great high gloss tough surface, our silver texalium sheet looks just as great as our carbon fiber sheet products do as you can see in the photos. We are very pleased to be suppling so many custom and production knife makers in the United States, and they can be sure that the products they purchase from Sierra Composites are also made in the USA.

If you are a custom handmade knife maker and need some custom carbon fiber sheet or texalium sheet for your knives, please contact us and we can supply you with the best products at the best prices. If you need off the shelf carbon fiber sheet for inlays you can purchase that directly from our website at www.sierracomposites.com

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3M DINOC - vinyl sticker - fancy but still fake carbon fiber

One of the latest and greatest fake vinyl sticker sheet to come out is the new 3M Di-Noc from their “Architectural Finishes” series line. What is kind of strange about this material is that is actually has a printed in texture to appear to make it more real carbon fiber looking. Well in the real world of real carbon fiber the good finished side is smooth with no texture and either high glossy or matte finish. So what they are saying is that the 3M Di-Noc is as good as the “bad” textured side our Sierra Composites carbon fiber sheets, the side that is slightly textured that we apply the adhesive backing to and is not shown. One big issue they advertise is the fact that you can use a heat gun and stretch this stuff around corners, well that’s great but you can do that will all fake carbon fiber that is sticker vinyl, and the fact that you can do that measn its not a real carbon fiber composite. O.K so maybe the new fake sticker is much cheaper than real carbon fiber sheet, well it is, generally it sells for about $0.12 per sq/inch and our real carbon fiber sheet at .015″ thin with adhesive backing sells at $0.15 per sq/inch. Well not a big difference there. There is one area where we can not compete with 3M Di-Noc, we don’t offer real carbon fiber sheets in 600 colors and styles, maybe you could try using their “stucco” fake Italian plastic 3M Di-Noc for your next project. Real carbon fiber sheets can be purchased at www.sierracomposites.com

Real carbon fibers? maybe - Real carbon fiber sheet composite? No

Since Sierra Composites was first made aware of a product that was called “Carbon Fiber Sheet” but was possibly raw carbon fiber fabric sandwiched between a clear vinyl on top and an adhesive backing. Further research has found the manufacturer of this “sort of ” carbon fiber sheet, its from an offshore company called Senko http://www.senkostyle.com/ under a heading of “Films” or “Laminate Films”. The company makes a wide variety of these films and adhesive films, tapes and a wide range of other products. The carbon fiber sheet film product is brand marketed under the name Senko Performance Carbon or Performance Carbon. How do we know the film construction is as we say, easy, we can peel apart the clear vinyl sticker on top from the carbon like fabric. Why do I say “carbon like fabric”, well judging from products that are made in China and based on what this product’s retail price is, I would suggest that most likely this is a E-Fiberglass approx 5.7 oz 2×2 twill weave that has been dyed black with the clear vinyl sticker on top and a non-3M adhesive backing of unknown quality.  We also noticed that most all photos of this product do not show the texture that is on the good side, but we have found a few that shows the true product. Now we are not claiming that this “carbon fiber sheet” is no good, maybe for your application it works, but it definitely is not true carbon fiber sheet composite as many would believe it is. For real carbon fiber sheet products visit our online store at www.sierracomposites.com

 

Sierra Composites carbon fiber sheet below

Free Silver Texalium Sheet at Sierra Composites

From Dec 1st to Dec 31st, Sierra Composites is giving away a FREE 8″x5″ @ .015″ Silver Texalium sheet with 3M adhesive with every purchase. No catches or fine print besides limit one per order. Click on over to the Sierra Composites online store to take advantage of this FREE offer.