New vehicle deceleration strategies have led to the development of deployable thermal protection systems with woven fabric outer layers that can withstand the harsh aerothermal environment of planetary entry. In this work, we present an experimental strategy for testing fabric samples and a method to determine nitrogen catalytic efficiency, gamma(N), from two-photon laser-induced fluorescence measurements of recombining nitrogen atoms near the sample surface. Measurements were made on other silicon carbide materials to better understand the influence of the fabric structure and porosity on catalytic recombination. The three test materials studied were a monolithic alpha-SiC, a CVD beta-SiC, and a single-ply, Hi-Nicalon beta-SiC fabric layup. Extracted catalytic efficiencies for atomic nitrogen recombination for monolithic alpha-SiC, CVD beta-SiC, and single-ply beta-SiC fabric are (6.18 +/- 1.55) x 10(-4) (at 1460 K), (3.59 +/- 0.90) x 10(-3) (at 1500 K), and (8.34 +/- 2.19) x 10(-4) (at 1675 K), respectively. This would categorize these materials as low-catalytic materials for nitrogen atom recombination in this temperature range.