Best way to remove annoying lettering from blades?

B

Blackhearted

Joined
Jul 6, 2005
Messages
307
hey folks,
i have several knives that have lettering on them that i would like to remove. i could obviously get them off with steel wool, but this would destroy the finish on the knife, and on some of them i'd like to avoid this.

perfect example: i have a gerber applegate/fairbairn folder. it has rex applegate's and will fairbairn's signatures running down the blade. now i deeply respect both of these gentlemen for their contributions to knife fighting but their signatures on the blade are absolutely hideous. it irks me that gerber would take a tactical folder and put a cheap novelty-like gimmick like signatures on the blade :barf:

any suggestions on how to remove these? i suppose i could buy a buffer and some fine grit polishing/buffing compound and buff them off, but ive never done this before and id rather not have to invest in a buffer ATM, since i wont be satisfied with just a cheap buffing wheel - ill end up spending a hundred bucks on a more decent rig, and then my g/f will beat me because were on a budget.

i have some other knives where the lettering is less obtrusive, yet equally annoying - so a way that would remove lettering from a small portion of the blade without affecting the finish would be great. btw - this is all painted lettering, not etched or embossed or engraved. on a cheaper knife i usually just say to hell with the finish and get out some triple 0 steel wool, but id rather not do that to some in my collection.

thanks in advance.
cheers,
-gabriel
 
You'll have to uniformly cover the whole face of the blade but a 3M cratex wheel in a fine or x-fine will take those off. Finish off by hand with a super fine emory cloth. You will end up with a 'brushed' stainless look at that point. If you wanted to you could then take it to a buff wheel and eventually remove the lines.

Chances are those sigs are etched in there deeper than you may realize. Even if you were to use one of those cheap rust erasers (UC135 Multi Purpose Eraser) from Smokey Mountain Knife works and remove the lettering the etched tracing would still remain on there.
 
yeah i see what youre saying - i have a benchmade knife that ive used for a lot of chopping, and while the black coating is completely worn off you can still see the ghost of the logo on it.

so i should leave it alone? ugh, but the signatures on the applegate/fairbairn are especially hideous.

i guess ill have to wait until i can invest in a buffer. how about some sort of chemical paint remover? or perhaps rather than removing the sig i could paint over it somehow? i can feel that its slightly raised so if it were a thin coating i think it would show through.
what options does the non-professional home budget user have for coating blades? preferably something that wont make an otherwise nice knife look like a flea-market one...
what would you do with the thing?
heres a pic of what i mean about the hideous lettering:
5785.jpg
 
Yep, that sure is ugly. I hate painted-on crap on knife blades.

But I'd want to test the removal method on some throw-away knives first.
Good Luck,
Bob
 
Pat Crawford comes to mind, as he uses media that will match the blasting on the knife as it stands.

You will ruin the finish if you try it yourself, and then you will not be happy.

It will probably cost you $20-$30 to have someone do it for you, including shipping. If it is not worth that much to you to have it done, than it is not worth doing, and you should just learn to live with it.

Best Regards,

Steven Garsson
 
I think it it were mine I'd buy a ten pack of the Cratex wheels and go to town on it with a dremmel. You could just buff the edge and grind portions of the blade with the Cratex leaving the parts where the ATS34 and Gerber are written alone.

Even a brushed look on the edge portions would look better than that mess. I guess I never looked closely at those knives before but that is a good looking knife other than the sigs on the blade. I agree with you. I've found in my own handmades that after the cratex you can even what odd lines are there out pretty good by hand with emory cloth or fine sand paper.

Steve
 
i have a dremel (cant find it at the moment, but i know its here somewhere), so ill give that a try.
and yeah, i bought it because i really like the knife (both modern and classic at the same time), and ATS34 is decent steel, but the sigs are an eyesore. i dont know who OK'd that in the production department, but i am guessing that they lost a lot more sales because of it than they gained. i bought it assuming it would just come off with some paint thinner or nail polish remover, but boy was i wrong. heh
 
If you buy some Cratex wheels just let the wheel do the work and do it so the rotation of the wheel is going short side of the blade so the lines are vertical not horizontal. If you do it long side it would still work but the lines going that way won't look as good. Also, don't stay in one place for too long and heat up the blade. Just let the wheel do the work without letting it dig in much more than to just skim the surface. Baby steps so to speak until you have evenly cleaned off the last remaining 'ghosts' of the original image.
 
I never would buy a knife that has a bunch of crap written on the blade. Why do they do it?
What is the point? It ruins what otherwise could be a nice knife. Even if it has a company logo, it shouldnt be placed out on the blade, it should be as close to the handle as possible.
(not any help, I know- just ranting)
 
Buy a new knife ;)
I took the logo/etches off of 2 knives. One a D2 Queen Canoe, the other a Rough Rider Elephant Toe.

The RR etch was very shallow and not much work at all.
The Queen etch was deep and alot of work.
I used sandpaper of varying grits. That first pass of 220 on a mirror polish blade is a real eye opener/tearer.
It took a couple of evenings but it is almost a mirror again...past satin not quite mirror. The final grit was 2000. Then I used my strop with the red compound that the dremel comes with.
Here is a photo with the knife in it.
d2axwoodcanoe.jpg


If that gerber has a bead blast blade it'll be even more work because you'll have to sand past the bead blast marks to get to the hollows in the etch.

You may want to buy a new knife :D
 
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