Best Blade coatings

Rob Thomas said:
if you want a great coating see if jeff or mike from esee will tell you what they use:) i have many esee knives and it takes almost 3 coats of paint stpipper and 3 hours for me to get the esee coating off. i like my knives with a patina. (forced or el-natural)
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If they are so great....why take them off? Why do like a patina more than the coating?
 
Contained said:
I will say that on most knives, I prefer the clean look of non-coated blades, and i do oil and lubricate my knives before they go out with me in the mornings, but some knives just look plain awesome with coatings. For example I love the look of the coated benchmade 943SBK, but for most of my stainless steel knives, I go against coatings.
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Looking "just plain awesome" is important. You can't really cut things with a blade unless it looks awesome.
 
Boy, I'm really impressed with the level of knowledge in this forum. Obviously. there are a few knifemakers here! I have to admit I love beautifully finished and edged blades too; every one has a different formula and polishes to a different gray - at least where the edge is ground. Personally, I prefer to just oil the naked steels w/ WD40. but somehow, I've managed to accumulate three or four black coated blades. And as I said, I know squat about any of their coatings, except that they look WORSE when oiled! And I'm a bit afraid that the WD40 might affect some of their black finishes.

BTW Re the Fox "black Idroglider" on the tactical which started me wondering: I believe it is a Teflon coating (over N690Co)...does this mean it HAS to be PTFE? And is no-one familiar with this Fox (proprietary) finish? It is used on the Parang 6" which martineden wrote about. Is there someone on this forum who knows him and can ask him why he CHOSE to use what I am now understanding is a coating to steer clear of?
 
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If anything, I hate beadblasted blades more than coated blades. Beadblasting is a cheap way of hiding inferior finishing. It scratches easily and it's a rust magnet. Stonewash/Tumbling isn't much more labor/machinery intensive and far superior in its results.
 
Best , at best, would be subjective for looks. How the coating looks is partly dependant on how the blade was finished. I've seen the same coating on a bb blade as I have a mirror polished blade, and the mirror polished blade looked like black chrome, while the bead blast blade was dull and flat in appearance.

The best, as far as standing up to what is thrown at it, would probably be the DLC (Diamond Like Carbon) coating, and the BC (Boron Carbide) coatings, as both have a Rockwell C hardness several points higher than the blade they cover.:)
 
That's pretty interesting, cutter17. I had no idea that the Rockwell scale could even be applied to coatings. Have you any idea of the Rockwell range of numbers for Teflon - PTFE; or are there many types of Teflon, hence a wide range of HRC numbers? The "black idroglider" coating of the tactical I have in mind covers N690Co steel, with an HRC of 58-60. It's certainly not likely to be higher then that, is it?
 
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I apply a wide range of finished to my blades and for me I take into consideration what style knife, steel choice and price range I’m looking to sell it for. I don’t coat my stainless steel blades but I do use GunKote on my carbon steel tactical knives. It’s sprayed and backed on at 300 degrees so you have to take into consideration heat treating and tempering when using this product. It looks nice and they have a great selection of colors, but it will wear over time. Then again any finish will scratch and wear over time. I’m now looking at Cerakote product line, it’s a tougher products but pricier and a little harder to use.
Just a couple of options for you.
Derick
 
Capntrade said:
That's pretty interesting, cutter17. I had no idea that the Rockwell scale could even be applied to coatings. Have you any idea of the Rockwell range of numbers for Teflon - PTFE; or are there many types of Teflon, hence a wide range of HRC numbers? The "black idroglider" coating of the tactical I have in mind covers N690Co steel, with an HRC of 58-60. It's certainly not likely to be higher then that, is it?
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I don't know about PTFE but the DLC coatings are around HRC 85 if I remember correctly. It is a very hard and durable coating and why a DLC coated blade can easily get marks on it that are actually a layer of metal from whatever you cut.
 
I like the looks of coatings and the rust protection they provide to my knives. The very edge doesn't bother me, that rust is easy to sharpen right off. I also like the "beat up" look once they've been used, so I think it's personal preference on that, but the rust protection is very real.
 
Hey Sodak: I think I agree with everything you have said, except I definitely DON'T like the "BEAT UP" look! I've loved knives ever since I was a kid, although I didn't collect them. I played with them, threw them in the ground, tree trunks, targets--everywhere. Learned to love the various steels, colours and grains. THERE WERE NO COATINGS BACK THEN!
Today, I have more knives, both coated and uncoated, and made of truly beautiful exotic steels they never dreamed of back then (50's). Crazy lock designs. I don't throw them at all and don't even like scuffing the coatings. But I still love the look, the feel, the HEFT of a great knife. And although today I am grown, and a survivalist, I think I am STILL playing with my knives!
 
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As long as you are happy with them Capntrade, that's really all that matters! More power to you, this would be a dull world if we all agreed on everything! I'm glad we now have the variety to choose from, and enough choices to satisfy everyone!
 
For Capntrade:

Teflon is one company's brand name for the compound PolyTetraFluoroEthylene, PTFE for short. This material is a plastic similar in hardness to polyethylene, which is to say that it is way softer than anything on the Rockwell C scale. It is rated on a different scale altogether. PTFE has a very low coefficient of friction, and it is very chemically inert. It cannot last nearly as long on a user blade as the hard coatings like DLC can. PTFE can be helpful on a food cutting knife due to the friction reduction and ease of washing.
 
I like the look of coatings until they get scratched up. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of a coating that doesn't look like crap after some good hard use. When they make a coating that holds up I'll be the first to use it.
 
Thanks, Bill1170, and thanks to tiguy7, FlaMtnBkr and cutter17. That's quite a lot of useful and specific info. And info I can understand! I googled PTFE as soon as tiguy7 mentioned it and most of it was way too technical and not really pertaining to knife blades anyway. And I'm not a chemist! But I do now know that my tactical is coated in a pretty but crappy, soft PTFE Teflon and I couldn't have said that before. And I know too that I agree with Marcinek, Big Mike, cwl, Dorito Monk and I suspect plenty of others that the best coating is NONE at all. Just beautifully polished (stainless?) steels that show me the fine grains of the blade metals and the colour and accuracy of the edge grind. They say if you can have only one tool when lost in the woods, take an axe; but I'll take a few knives every time!
 
I have messed with Duracoat, Gun Kote and Cerakote. Out of the three Cerakote is the toughest. It is more expensive and harder to work with but the end results are better IMO. It is my preferred coating and I use it every day.
 
sykes3170 said:
I like the look of coatings until they get scratched up. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of a coating that doesn't look like crap after some good hard use. When they make a coating that holds up I'll be the first to use it.
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Have you tried DLC? I would be surprised if you got it looking bad, except maybe after a few years of hard use. I'm not a fan of coatings but it is some really tough stuff.
 
FlaMtnBkr said:
I don't know about PTFE but the DLC coatings are around HRC 85 if I remember correctly. It is a very hard and durable coating and why a DLC coated blade can easily get marks on it that are actually a layer of metal from whatever you cut.
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That is what I seem to remember it being. I think the BC, Boron Carbide is somewhere in the high 60's-low 70's??
 
This just arrived from Fox Knives Military Division of Italy re: their "black Idroglider" blade coating. Seems that Bill1170 was right when he implied that there are many names for PTFE out there other than Dupont. Wish Fox had chosen a harder DLC or BC coating instead on their FX-151T tactical:

"The Black Idroglider is the same function and the same basic composition of the duping Teflon, the main difference is that is used for coating together with water H2o so is becoming more strong also compared tone regular Teflon , this coating has been used on industrial cutting wood blades for the long resistant that he has.
The name is not an our choice is the brand used from the italian manufacture that is different from Dupont.

Gabriele Frati
Fox knives Italy"

Capntrade
 
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So what would all of you "no coaters" do on a week long expedition in a high moisture environment and a high carbon blade?
 
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