Anyone powdercoated their own knives?

[Liam Ryan]

A buddy at work gave me some orange gloss powdercoat he got for his KTM racing quad that didn't match the color right, so I decided to look into doing some blades in blaze orange in the powdercoat booth at work, which I like the look of, and also makes it easier to find if dropped in the bush.
I am going to do a cold steel bushman, ESEE izula, and an old cold steel hawk head. (might look dumb but it's just gathering dust anyway) along with a k&m match safe and possibly an alox sak.

Now for the main question, to cure they need to go in the oven for about half an hour at 400f or so, will this ruin the temper in any way?
I figure as long as it isn't hotter then the original tempering temp I should be ok, but I could very well be wrong.

 

[Jastab]

I've powder coated a few of mine that I made, A2 @61rc... I asked the heat treater about it and it won't effect anything. I did mine for 15 mins @400º Ive powder coated literally thousands of parts, once the paint moves from powder to solid your good. I've left parts in for hours and the paint looks the same as 15 mins.

 

[Liam Ryan]

I just did them tonight, came out well but not really pleased with the color, too drab.
Good to know you can leave it in, my buddy said leaving it too long can make it look crappy.
I am really pleased with how they look though, it's almost professional quality, something I am not used to when I DIY stuff.

 

[Jastab]

I just did them tonight, came out well but not really pleased with the color, too drab.
Good to know you can leave it in, my buddy said leaving it too long can make it look crappy.
I am really pleased with how they look though, it's almost professional quality, something I am not used to when I DIY stuff.

Depends on the color, white will start to turn "milky" if you leave it in too long, and yellow can be hard to do as well. With darker colors it doesn't really matter, once it moves from powder to paint its pretty much done.