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LeviB123
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Group: Forum Members
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Hey there, I'm going to be skinning a sword handle and guard in kevlar. I could do carbon fiber (Which I have experience with), but I would prefer kevlar for the aesthetic of this particular piece. I have a few yards of technora Kevlar anyways. I'm wondering if anyone has any experience skinning in only kevlar and if there's anything I should know? Heres a similar sword so you can see what I'll be trying to skin: 
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Hanaldo
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Group: Forum Members
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Pretty much exactly the same technique, with the added caveat of it being a total pain in the ass to sand and deburr. Nightmare of a shape to skin too. I wish you luck sir! Bring a thesaurus for creative cussing 🤐
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Massimiliano
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+xPretty much exactly the same technique, with the added caveat of it being a total pain in the ass to sand and deburr. Nightmare of a shape to skin too. I wish you luck sir! Bring a thesaurus for creative cussing 🤐 😄😄😄
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Warren (Staff)
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Group: Administrators
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Don't forget that Kevlar is NOT UV stable so will fade in time and loose the yellow colour as it fades.
Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant
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LeviB123
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 4,
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+xPretty much exactly the same technique, with the added caveat of it being a total pain in the ass to sand and deburr. Nightmare of a shape to skin too. I wish you luck sir! Bring a thesaurus for creative cussing 🤐 Would it be best to put it in a vaccum chamber do you think? I've never had to do that with carbon fiber skinning but I don't know if this is going to be more resistant to holding its shape.
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LeviB123
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 4,
Visits: 23
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+xDon't forget that Kevlar is NOT UV stable so will fade in time and loose the yellow colour as it fades. I'm not sure if that applies to this, it's actually technora kevlar. I believe it's a mix of the two fibers and it's all black. I don't know if that changes anything.
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Hanaldo
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 2.5K,
Visits: 28K
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+x+xPretty much exactly the same technique, with the added caveat of it being a total pain in the ass to sand and deburr. Nightmare of a shape to skin too. I wish you luck sir! Bring a thesaurus for creative cussing 🤐 Would it be best to put it in a vaccum chamber do you think? I've never had to do that with carbon fiber skinning but I don't know if this is going to be more resistant to holding its shape. Do it the same way you have done with carbon, the Kevlar will behave exactly the same it is only when you need to trim it and sand it that you will notice any difference. Ive never had any luck with skinning under vacuum, there is too much excess fabric when it is consolidated which means it will pinch and become a nightmare to clean up. I would maybe think about using shrink wrap tape on the handle section, as a 25mm wide tape looks like it may do a good job of applying pressure to that area. The hand guard and the knob at the end are your biggest challenges. The hand guard I dont see being too difficult but the knob looks no fun at all.
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LeviB123
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 4,
Visits: 23
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+x+x+xPretty much exactly the same technique, with the added caveat of it being a total pain in the ass to sand and deburr. Nightmare of a shape to skin too. I wish you luck sir! Bring a thesaurus for creative cussing 🤐 Would it be best to put it in a vaccum chamber do you think? I've never had to do that with carbon fiber skinning but I don't know if this is going to be more resistant to holding its shape. Do it the same way you have done with carbon, the Kevlar will behave exactly the same it is only when you need to trim it and sand it that you will notice any difference. Ive never had any luck with skinning under vacuum, there is too much excess fabric when it is consolidated which means it will pinch and become a nightmare to clean up. I would maybe think about using shrink wrap tape on the handle section, as a 25mm wide tape looks like it may do a good job of applying pressure to that area. The hand guard and the knob at the end are your biggest challenges. The hand guard I dont see being too difficult but the knob looks no fun at all. Yes, I was a little worried about the guard because it's essentially a half sphere. I'm not entirely sure how to laminate something spherical with one piece.
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Hanaldo
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 2.5K,
Visits: 28K
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+x+x+x+xPretty much exactly the same technique, with the added caveat of it being a total pain in the ass to sand and deburr. Nightmare of a shape to skin too. I wish you luck sir! Bring a thesaurus for creative cussing 🤐 Would it be best to put it in a vaccum chamber do you think? I've never had to do that with carbon fiber skinning but I don't know if this is going to be more resistant to holding its shape. Do it the same way you have done with carbon, the Kevlar will behave exactly the same it is only when you need to trim it and sand it that you will notice any difference. Ive never had any luck with skinning under vacuum, there is too much excess fabric when it is consolidated which means it will pinch and become a nightmare to clean up. I would maybe think about using shrink wrap tape on the handle section, as a 25mm wide tape looks like it may do a good job of applying pressure to that area. The hand guard and the knob at the end are your biggest challenges. The hand guard I dont see being too difficult but the knob looks no fun at all. Yes, I was a little worried about the guard because it's essentially a half sphere. I'm not entirely sure how to laminate something spherical with one piece. Yeh you can't, not with regular weave fabrics anyway. A 5HS or 8HS harness would could probably do it, but that will be irregular and difficult to find, especially in small quantities. And likely doesn't exist in the same material you are trying to use, that's a bit exotic. You would have to do it in multiple pieces, which becomes a very difficult task when working with Kevlar or any other cut resistant fabric.
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taimur
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Group: Forum Members
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+xHey there, I'm going to be skinning a sword handle and guard in kevlar. I could do carbon fiber (Which I have experience with), but I would prefer kevlar for the aesthetic of this particular piece. I have a few yards of technora Kevlar anyways. I'm wondering if anyone has any experience skinning in only kevlar and if there's anything I should know? Heres a similar sword so you can see what I'll be trying to skin: I think that its exceptionally hard to skin with the crossover textures ... I attempt to keep away from it .. The kevlar assimilates a ton of gum and swells up, making an exceptionally harsh furrowed surface .. takes ages to recoat and sand level without sanding into the kevlar (which simply gets truly chaotic
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