Anyone regret stripping the coating?

Mundele

Mundele

Joined
Aug 5, 2000
Messages
403
Yesterday at Blade I met moose and he showed me his stripped BK16. It looked really nice. I'm considering stripping mine and was curious if anyone regrets stripping theirs. I backcountry fly fish a lot in gsmnp and am wet a lot of the time. Is it gonna be a pain to keep it rust free?
 
Hey there,

I have stripped both my Beckers (bk2 and bk4) and so far I have not had a problem with rust at all. I have taken them out hiking, camping and hunting so they have seen the wilderness and there has not been a problem. Just dry them off as soon as you can after they get wet. You might want to consider applying some gun blue to the blade too, I feel like that has helped both of mine. Hope this helps.
 
when you get that first sign of rust...you may regret it. does not take a lot to get some rust on these knives. they come with coatings for a reason! forced patinas are cool and all, but so is the knife performing like it should... I never EVER strip my knives but thats just me.
 
I strip mine, because if you use them very much..they will strip on their own in pieces, I prefer just to get it over with. I have no regrets.
 
Level headed said:
when you get that first sign of rust...you may regret it. does not take a lot to get some rust on these knives. they come with coatings for a reason! forced patinas are cool and all, but so is the knife performing like it should... I never EVER strip my knives but thats just me.
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I know it is popular to do so around here, but I don't strip mine either. I like the protection of the coating and actually like the looks of it too. Thrillbilly is right though, with use it doesn't take a heck of alot for it to strip on its own. The first piece of wood I batonned my just taken out of the box BK2 through took quite a bit of coating off.
 
I stripped mine just yesterday. And the moment I finished I realized I may have ruined that wonderful sheath I got from BaldingEagle a few months back, recalling that The Warrior's BK2 did not fit in the passaround sheath as well as the others'. So I ran upstairs and slipped it in and out of the sheath. It's looser, but this is actually in a good way. There is still retention, and now I can take the knife out without actually struggling with it. It's still satisfyingly snug in there, although the retention strap will come in handy now.

The patina could have come out a bit better, but that was out of function, not fashion.
 
The shiny can't be argued with!

LOL
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Your flies have hooks that are not stainless,do you have problems with them rusting?You won't if they are dry before being put away.Quit frettin' over a knife and worry about something important like the dying hemlocks or the rainfall on Clingmans Dome that is as acidic as vinegar.
 
Well, I dont carry my fly box on my belt when wading, so no I don't have issues with them rusting. And what does me stripping the finish have to do with dying hemlocks and acid rain?
 
Mundele said:
Well, I dont carry my fly box on my belt when wading, so no I don't have issues with them rusting. And what does me stripping the finish have to do with dying hemlocks and acid rain?
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Agreed. Asking a knife community to stop worrying about rust is like asking the Westboro Baptist Church to stop worrying about who God hates.

If your stripped Becker gets rust, you just get it off with a bit of fine paper or steel wool, and then reapply its forced patina (a thin coat of deli brown mustard works miraculously for me).
 
Unless you are running around in the swamps or in the ocean, rust doesn't seem to be a problem. I've gotten my Beckers wet before. I wipe the off and resheath them. No problems so far.

You might want to keep a rag doused in mineral oil in a plastic bag. Periodically, or when you get it wet, take the rag out, wipe the knife down, and no worries.
 
I like to see the character of the carbon steel develop personally. The two issues I've had are

*under the handle - had my BK9 in the creek clearing out a swimming hole, totally submerged, let it dry in the sun that afternoon and put it away. This was two weeks ago, had it out this weekend and took off the scales just out of curiosity and there was a little bit of surface rust.

*left blood and water (was raining) on it and it rusted within 30 minutes, but this was before I put a patina on it. I guess when dealing with blood wipe it down more frequently

Kind of wish I had left more of the coating on the handles which is what I did with my BK2. I guess I could paint them with some high quality rattle can stuff just so I don't have to worry...? Or would another option be to permanently epoxy the scales on? Would this keep the water out?
 
Someone (I think it was Thrillbilly) has a post from a few years back where he put a nice olive green color on his BK9 with some sort of spray-on stuff, and then tested its durability by batonning wood. That's what I'm looking for. But durability probably wouldn't be an issue for you since you're looking to keep it beneath the slabs anyway.
 
Pug-butter said:
I think this speaks for itself.

I left the coating on the tang for the reason you described, but I've seen people baking their own colors onto their blades with truck bed liner before. I'll see if I can find one.
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The way you quoted that makes it read like a quote from William Shatner.

I at one time was going to strip my BK-5. Then I decided every scuff and scratch on that coating had a story to tell of a good old reliable blade that had been there and done that for years. Field dressing a wild hog in eastern Texas. Cleaning catfish caught in the Ohio River. Cutting through Kudzu in Georgia. Slaughtering and butchering who knows how many cattle and hogs and deer. Building a crude shelter for the night in the Everglades.

No. I love every scratch and scuff on that blade.
 
ok here is my take on it. The coating protects the blade from rust. yes. but so do patinas. A high carbon knife will gradually form its own patina over time, eventually it will be black with GOOD oxidation. The red stuff, rust, is bad oxidation. So a patina makes a protevtive barrier between the steel and acts like a nice buffer. Now RUST may form, but in all honesty it takes a LONG time of sitting rusty for it to have any real effect on the knife. honestly, ive had knives in sheaths for months, pulled em out and there was rust, some flitz and they were like new again. Strip and force a patina if your worried, if not just wipe it off and if the sheath gets wet store them apart. easy peasy
 
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