Spyderco Forums

Is there any way to repair the dings and scratches on highly polished carbon fiber? My Rubicon has experienced some pretty good wear by the clip where it is exposed to seat belts and such.

Do you guys just live with it? I think the vallaton has the same kind of polish if that helps.

Thanks.

I would try one of two things. One, you could try buffing the scratches/worn areas with some 600 grit sandpaper and finish to a high poish with 1000 or higher grit. (If you do this, be sure to wear a mask). You can achieve the high polish look by using a light oil such as WD40 or FP10 on the handle after you polish it. Or, secondly, you could send it to the Spyderco W&R dept. and see if they could do this for you.

Personally, I would probably just live with it though. Adds character. :)

Yeah I'm not willing to take sand paper to it. I've only had it for a week or so. Hmm..leaving it with character is how I'll probably go. I knew that this would happen going in. It just hurts since it's such a nice knife. I have to wonder, are others walking around with polished carbon fiber scales with character too and just living with it? Or is it more likely that this kind of finish is for safe queens.

Perfect and smooth carbon fiber that sits in a dark safe may be undamaged, but it's not beautiful unless observed by an appreciative mind. The dinged up knife in a pocket may appear damaged, but when appreciated daily for its form and function, can take on a much deeper beauty.

I've had good luck with this brand of polish for acrylic / plexiglass surfaces, but not sure if it would work on polished carbon fiber or not as I don't own any knives with that finish.

https://www.novuspolish.com/" target="_blank

That's one of the reasons I'm more of a G-10/FRN man myself...I tend to scratch the heck out of anything shiny no matter how careful I am.

gbelleh wrote:Perfect and smooth carbon fiber that sits in a dark safe may be undamaged, but it's not beautiful unless observed by an appreciative mind. The dinged up knife in a pocket may appear damaged, but when appreciated daily for its form and function, can take on a much deeper beauty.

I try to best to follow philosophy but it is very very difficult for me. Do you have any knives like this that you carry regularly?

My Vallotton is polished G10, and scratches pretty easily. I just live with it. Character.

If you have the time and patience, a set of Micro-Mesh Pads is far superior to using sandpaper. A set of nine pads start at 1500 grit and progress up to 12,000 grit. A 12,000 grit finish will not leave any marks detectable by the naked eye. Many places carry Micro-Mesh pads. They are available from Amazon. The pads wash off easily and can be reused many, many times.

WMR wrote:If you have the time and patience, a set of Micro-Mesh Pads is far superior to using sandpaper. A set of nine pads start at 1500 grit and progress up to 12,000 grit. A 12,000 grit finish will not leave any marks detectable by the naked eye. Many places carry Micro-Mesh pads. They are available from Amazon. The pads wash off easily and can be reused many, many times.

Thank you. I really appreciate that 411

Liquid Cobra wrote:I try to best to follow philosophy but it is very very difficult for me. Do you have any knives like this that you carry regularly?

Most of my knives stay in excellent condition, mostly because of my carry methods, and a lack of the need to hard-use them. But I do have a couple with some pretty serious scratches. My Phoenix has a few deep gouges in the ti from driving with a set of keys that somehow ended up in the wrong pocket. That bummed me out at first. My ti CRKs also have scratches and honest wear on them. But I remind myself that imperfection is a necessary part of nature. It really is about how you look at it. Those scratches on my Phoenix happened during a road trip to see friends and family. So now, instead of seeing it as an ugly imperfection, it's a reminder of the fun that was had on that trip, the memories shared with my then 2-year old son, as he played with his far away cousins, and met family members for the first time. A reminder of visiting with my best friend, and seeing his baby boy for the first time. A scratch can hold a lot of good memories, and be a powerful reminder to stay present and enjoy each moment, and not to just let time slip away faster each year while fretting about things that just don't matter. It's all about how you choose to look at things.

Thanks Gbelleh, I really appreciate your input and point of view. I'm healing from the first purely cosmetic scratches on my Rubicon. I'm going to carry and enjoy the **** out of this knife.

I would recommend putting a little paste wax on smooth scales once a week or so and buffing it off with a soft cloth. Does wonders for small scratches and keeps the scales looking beautiful. Won't handle any large dings, and doesn't work as well with textured or peel-ply scales.

The absolute best stuff out there is Renaissance Wax - which is what the British Museum uses on its wooden artifacts. Fantastic stuff - and a little jar will last you a long time. However, you could use almost any regular paste wax.

TedP

Good to know Ted. Thanks , I'll keep an eye out for some.

I'll just add that, as a lazy person, I'd use the buffing wheel on a rotary tool rather than polish by hand. You can use either a super fine abrasive, or the aforementioned wax, to keep things looking snazzy.

Fair warning though, if you do use abrasives, consider masking the pivot area because you don't want any sort of grit in that which is inevitably what'll happen.