Carbon Fiber picks?

[phippoD]

hey everyone

i was thinking (never a good sign ) is it possable to make picks out of carbon fiber or it it just a bit impractical, any ideas??

thanks in advance

[Squelchtone]

hey everyone

i was thinking (never a good sign ) is it possable to make picks out of carbon fiber or it it just a bit impractical, any ideas??

thanks in advance

well.. I wonder how those would hold up.. I know everyone knows how strong carbon fiber is, but I think it is mainly used where keeping the weight down is important such as race cars and aircraft. When dealing with lock pick tools, keeping the weight down isn't really an issue and making picks out of metal is your best bet. No need to make picks out of carbon fiber, other than to minimize detection during metal detector searches. But if you're hiding picks during metal detector searches, then you've got a whole new set of problems that most of us will never have to deal with.

Squelchtone

[ridinplugspinnaz]

hey everyone

i was thinking (never a good sign ) is it possable to make picks out of carbon fiber or it it just a bit impractical, any ideas??

thanks in advance

well.. I wonder how those would hold up.. I know everyone knows how strong carbon fiber is, but I think it is mainly used where keeping the weight down is important such as race cars and aircraft. When dealing with lock pick tools, keeping the weight down isn't really an issue and making picks out of metal is your best bet. No need to make picks out of carbon fiber, other than to minimize detection during metal detector searches. But if you're hiding picks during metal detector searches, then you've got a whole new set of problems that most of us will never have to deal with.

Squelchtone

On the plus side, carbon fiber can conduct vibration exceptionally well along the direction of its grain. If you process it correctly and align the grain with the handle the right way, you might get some excellent feedback from a CF-handled pickset.

[jamesphilhulk2]

yeah good idea, carbon fibre does have a few good advantages over steel, but would it be cost-effective, it costs next to nothing to make a set of picks.

i think i might try this

[TigerDragon]

Carbon fiber picks would run the risk of wear and tear. A carbon fiber pick that shows wear would be a health hazard.

A carbon fiber knife does its cutting by ripping flesh. When it does, little bits of the fibers can get left in the wound. This is much like a splinter, fiberglass, etc, except it is harder to find and remove.

I only bring this up, because I'd rather not see anyone attempt this and find out the hard way how bad it could hurt.

[barbarian]

Good point.

Think also carbon fiber particles, are a bit like asbestos particles. If you are sanding them, you really don't want this in your lungs.

[jamesphilhulk2]

Good point.

Think also carbon fiber particles, are a bit like asbestos particles. If you are sanding them, you really don't want this in your lungs.

thats when a mask comes in to play

[ridinplugspinnaz]

yeah good idea, carbon fibre does have a few good advantages over steel, but would it be cost-effective, it costs next to nothing to make a set of picks.

i think i might try this

There's no way it would be cost-effective (at least that I'm that I'm aware of). Carbon fiber itself is an expensive material, and in the treatments you're probably thinking about, I suspect it would be out of the league of most hobbyists to work with / produce anyway. I misread your post initially, I thought you just wanted CF handles for traditional picks, not CF picks themselves. An interesting idea, but probably impractical. Remember too that an extrusion of carbon fiber down to the thickness of picks is going to be quite brittle against transverse stresses; in other words, if you bend the pick the wrong way, that's about it, no re-working them like you can with metal picks.

[barbarian]

If you check out the local hobby shop, they might have some CF rods for strengthening radio controlled models. You could google "carbon fiber rods" You would be hard pressed to get this kind of quality and strength from any do it yourself process. One place I found shows rods that are .032 thick, (pretty good to start with) .310 wide and come in 4 foot lengths. Five hunks for $46.

Raw material cost would only be $1.50 a pick or so, if you went this way.

[TorontoTonto]

This just looks like a dupe of my thread, except you changed the material. Kind of interesting that two days after mines up, you reply on mine and then remake it. Where has the self gone too? it saddens me that it exists no longer.

[phippoD]

its only after reading your thread on wooden picks that go me thinking about differnt types of materials

[jamesphilhulk2]

you could buy a small sheet of treated carbon fibre from ebay or something, cut into strips (same dimensions as a hacksaw blade), then machine it into a pick.

obviously most if not all of the work must be carried out in a well ventilated are and with the correct PPE e.g gloves, face mask, eye protection.

research how the pro's work with carbon fibre and take notes of what they wear etc

[jamesphilhulk2]

forgot to add to reduce the amount of dust you could you one of those wet-stone sharpener sets.

p.s an edit button would have help here

[TorontoTonto]

Fair enough Phippo, over in wooden picks we have been throwing some more ideas around and apart from strong wood we came up with the idea of coring it with something such as metal and or treating it with some sort of varnish for added strength. I think that could apply to the carbon fiber also. Because its not really about not using another material its about added feedback or a different type of feedback, at least that was my idea behind it.

[WDPaladin]

I think the problem with this is going to be the type of strength that CF has versus metal; I ran into this type of thing discussing titanium over aluminum once (tensile vs torsive, strength vs stiffness).

CF is designed to flex considerably with it's high tensile strength, while that same trait is most often an undesirable attribute in metal applications like picking where strength is not a primary need. We're not lifting 15lb. pins, so the ability to to flex without snapping is not a primary concern. Because of this, CF would probably only yield a lightweight but sloppy feeling pick. A mid-strength but extremely hard metal (but therefore brittle to an extent) would produce the highest sensitivity within the strength range required. Hence, the use of steel, aluminum, and occasionally titanium picks dominates the field. Not to say that a CF pick wouldn't look pretty spiffy though, and CF handles would just look too sweet for words.

Just my 2 cents.