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

Click on the images for larger views

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

Asymmetric carbon fiber angle

Do you require carbon fiber angle that is longer on one side than the other? Sierra Composites is now fabricating asymmetric carbon fiber angle. The same great high quality carbon fiber angle we have fabricated for years but with two different side lengths. Currently the maximum side length you can purchase is 2 1/2″ long and the minimum is 1/2″ long, and the overal length of the angle is available in our standard lengths of 12″ / 24″ / 36″ / 48″. We are working on a simple product calcuator that will be available on our online store at www.sierracomposites.com but until then you can easily use our contact form for any inquires. Pricing for the asymetric angle is the same as a standard equal side length for the longest side.

Carbon fiber signs at indoor karting and restaurant facility

 A couple years ago Sierra Composites teamed up with a design studio in Chicago to fabricate some custom carbon fiber sheets for one of their clients. Those carbon fiber sheet laminates were used around the facility as signage. They were made from our .059″ carbon fiber sheet and mounted to the walls with standoffs so they “floated” off the wall. We have had this photo for quite a while and forgot about it. Its a great photo showing how Sierra Composites carbon fiber products are used in may applications. The restaurant is Stewart’s Bar and Grille located in the Chicago Indoor Racing complex in Buffalo Grove Ill.

Carbon fiber sheet thickness calculator

Sierra Composites regularily gets questions regarding carbon fiber sheet laminate thickness in metric measurements. We do have unit conversion charts with other sheet data such as weight on every product item in our online store. However to make it even more simple to convert from inches to millimeters or even centimeters, we have built a javascript unit converter so you can easily covert whatever you need to. Once you know what thickness carbon fiber sheet laminate you need, click over to our online store at www.sierracomposites.com to purchase. [inline] [/inline]

Carbon Fiber Sheet Thickness Calculator

Convert carbon fiber sheet from inches / centimeters / millimeters.

1. Select a unit from the "From" dropdown list and one from the "To" dropdown list. 2. Enter a numeric value, and click "To" button.

From centimetersmillimetersinches To centimetersmillimetersinches   centimeters = 1 centimeters   Enter 1

Sierra Composites NEW 2inch carbon fiber angle

Sierra Composites has just released our new 2" inch long sided carbon fiber angle. Previously the largest sided size we manufactured was 1 1/2" inch. The 1 1/2" inch angle was the longest sided carbon fiber angle commercially available from any source until the release of Sierra Composites 2" inch angle product. The new carbon fiber angle is still made the same containing a small radius in the corner for added strength that sharp corner angle can not match. Our 2" angle is available in all of our stock lengths of 12" / 24" / 36" and 48", and is priced from $31.95 to $139.95. You can purchase this great new product from our online store at www.sierracomposites.com

Carbon fiber thin veneer sheet .015″

Sierra Composites is the leader in supplying carbon fiber thin veneer sheets to retail and business customers. Several of these use our carbon fiber sheets as a veneer overlay on stereo speakers giving them a high tech carbon fiber finish look. Since our carbon sheets are available with a high quality 3M 468MP adhesive backing, the application is very simple, and the results are outstanding as you can see below. You can purchase these high quality sheets through our online store www.sierracomposites.com

custom carbon fiber parts and fabrication

Sierra Composites typically gets inquiries regarding custom carbon fiber parts and other advanced composites fabrication. While we do not fabricate custom parts for a Honda Civic or similar products. We do have the capability of fabricating one off custom carbon fiber parts such as a large scale carbon fiber square tube, round tubing, oval tubing, airfoil etc. We can produce these composite parts using just about any fabrics from 8HS carbon fiber to 3K twill, Basalt fabric hybrids  to Hexply prepreg. An example below is an image of one of the carbon fiber half spheres we manufactured for use in Haptics applications. If you have a project that needs a custom carbon fiber part, please contact Sierra Composites

carbon fiber parts - interior dash switch panel

The photo below shows a great example of a .041" thick custom carbon fiber sheet interor dash part. This part was fabricated to have some slight curves to it, but basically it is fabricated using .041" carbon fiber sheet.  It is a good example of a lightweight switch, circuit breaker custom panel that can be made using Sierra Composites carbon fiber composites materials available here at our store.