Carbon Fiber the Real Star of 2019 Blade Show Every year Blade Magazine assembles custom knife makers and large-scale manufacturers for their annual Blade Show. The 2019 edition of the show recently concluded in Atlanta, Georgia. The highlight of the show was the annual Knife of the Year awards.
Needless to say there were plenty of great knives considered by an anonymous panel of judges. When the awards were finally given, one thing was clear: carbon fiber was the real star of the show. Many of the winners sported carbon fiber handles in a variety of shapes and sizes. The overall Knife of the Year was awarded to an Italian company known as Fox Knives. The company also took home the same award in 2018 with a carbon fiber knife they call the Suru. This year's winner was their Radius model with its innovative opening mechanism that is currently pending patent approval. Carbon Fiber is an Ideal Material If you know anything about composites, you know that carbon fiber is an ideal material for building knives. Blades are still forged from metal, but everything from handles to locking mechanisms can be made with carbon fiber. It is strong enough to handle the punishment yet light enough to make a carbon fiber knife considerably less weighty. Most of what you see on the outside of these knives is pretty standard fare. Your typical carbon fiber body and handle are in basic black. You can see the weave of the carbon fiber material in some models, even if it has been polished to a glorious shine. And of course, the designs are very sleek and sophisticated. There is little doubt that carbon fiber makes these knives as good-looking as they are strong. The big question for us is how these knife handles are fabricated. Are knife makers using manual layups, or do they prefer some sort of pressed carbon fiber or injection mold process? Maybe they are 3D printing the parts. Who knows? Not Just for Airplanes and Boats One of the things we most appreciate about products like carbon fiber knife handles is that they demonstrate that the material is not just for airplanes and boats. While it is true that the aerospace and marine industries are the two largest consumers of carbon fiber, they are not the only consumers. Strolling through the 2019 Blade Show revealed a whole host of carbon fiber products that had nothing to do with flying or boating. Some of those products did not even relate to knives.