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A thought.

F

Febeleh

Joined
Nov 23, 2011
Messages
265
Anyone know how to influence a company?
I think we should try to influence Ka-Bar to stop coating knives (or at least the Becker line).
It would make the knives better, while saving them the money in painting materials.
I know Ethan Becker peruses these forums himself, so if you are here, why do you coat them?
It seems like the only people in the target audience of becker knives are the type of people that know that high carbon steels rust, and know how to take care of them so that doesn't happen. If this forum is any indication, most people strip their knives as the first thing when they get the knives. Or perhaps even offer a slightly cheaper version without paint. So what's the issue?
 
Because of all the ones bought by folks who have no interest in spending the time to maintain a knife.
 
I don't think that's it. I'd barely spent an hour playing with my new "toy" in the bush when I noticed silvery streaks beginning to pop up. There are some near the BKT logo on both sides, and some along the edge.

You're going to have to maintain the knife either way. Why not make it look better and perform better (in the long run) by giving it a patina, rather than essentially painting over it to delay the problem?
 
Because Big Black Beckers are black for a reason. How are you supposed to sneak up on terrorists in the dark when your mango patina'd stripped and polished blade is reflecting the moonlight? But seriously, there are alot of people that buy these knives without knowing the difference between 1095 crovan and Aus8 stainless, and they're usually the type that don't go on forums to talk about knives, not everyone that buys a knife is a saavy knife enthusiast, some buy em because...gasp... They just need a knife.
 
1) coating for people who don't know how to take care of knives helps a lot with maintenance.

2) people who only like tacticool would do reviews saying its not a "real" hard use knife because it isn't coated.

3) It would deprive Becker Fans the pleasure of stripping the knife.
 
The coating covers alot of flaws that would require addition attention if being sold in a raw finish. Its cheaper to applying tohecoating then it is to spend an extra hour per knife on polishing, sanding, ect.
 
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as long as they can rust, they'll probably have a coating, for the 99% of the people who will never mod the knife, at a guess; KaBar probably has zero interest in warranty claims down the road when the knives DO rust.

removing the coating is trivial for the 1%
 
UCPOPO said:
The coating covers alot of flaws that would require addition attention if being sold in a raw finish. Its cheaper to applying tohecoating then it is to spend an extra hour per knife on polishing, sanding, ect.
Click to expand...
This, and this.
 
I like the coating on some of the knives. I've been carrying my Eskabar daily next to my skin, and I'm glad it has a coating on it, since during the summer months my sweat would probably rust it if it was stripped. So I'm leaving that one alone. My BK-17 I probably won't strip either, for the same reason.

Having the option is always a good thing. I can strip the knives I want to with a dollar's worth of stripper and a 25 cent razor blade.
 
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