Best way to remove black powder coat on Ontario knife

[COSMO]

So I picked up this not so gently used Ontario Knife. I figured I could fix the blade and I want to remove that black powder coating. Someone told me to try using paint remover. Looking for some input on what the best way to do this is.
Thanks for any input.
Cosmo

 

[LG&M]

Use it, use it alot.
Or buy some stripper at the hardware store.
I like the first method.

 

[Danke42]

Powder coat needs to be chemically stripped. The catch is folks seem to kill themselves when trying this at home. A place that does powdercoat will have a tank with the right mix to remove that but it might melt the handle too.

 

[BitingSarcasm]

I use Citristrip to remove blade coatings, it's easily available at the hardware store. Mask off the parts of the blade you don't want to get chemically altered, a good layer of masking tape works fine. Find a spot outside or with great ventilation, smear a a good layer of goop, then wait until it starts to peel. Once it starts to come off, a paint scraper or putty knife will take off the rest. If the first time doesn't get it all, reapply and start over. Citristip is sensitive to heat, it won't work well if it starts getting into the 50s. It's incredibly messy, so make sure have a disposable drop cloth. My usual trick is to open up a plastic bag, spread it open flat, then try and do all the gooping and scraping in it--makes cleanup much easier.

 

[Phixt]

+1 Citristrip.

 

[MolokaiRider]

This is some of the tools I use to remove coatings.

Work in a well ventilated place, and make sure the stripper is contained. Also, wear gloves and safety glasses. You don't want stripper on your skin or in your eyes.

I use the scraper to apply the gel stripper to just the blade on both sides, and let it sit for about 20 minutes. Try not to get it on the handle if you can. You can use tape but I've found that the tape adhesive will fail when exposed to stripper. I have exposed micarta and grivory scales to direct long term exposure to stripper and they were fine. I have no idea how the Ontario Kraton will respond.

Use the scraper to start getting the coating off. Again, be careful of splatter, and try not to get it on your gloves. The ones I used below were eaten through quickly. I suggest using a better glove than these nitriles.

You will have to rinse the blade with soap and water to get all the stripper off. Run the sink for a long time, or the stripper could damage your pipes/seals. I prefer to use disposable foil that I can wrap up and dispose it at a safe rinsate location at the dump. Don't throw it in your trash or dump in on the ground if possible. Once rinsed and washed, you may need to use a razor to scrape off any coating that the stripper didn't remove.

Good luck, go slow, be careful, and enjoy your knife!

 

[Yonose]

I also like citristrip, the ventilation and disposal of which are nowhere nearly as toxic as stripper. If it can handle busse coatings(in which forum I found out about its existence), it can certainly handle any coating applied by Ontario or Kabar.

 

[COSMO]

Thanks for all the input, I have been working on this knife and hope to post some pictures

 

[SteelJunkee]

I've asked a similar question a while ago and did not get any answer so I ended up sandblasting it and the results is perfect.

I wouldn't want my handle go near any kind of solvent.

 

[COSMO]

So I am finally done with this knife and thought I would post some pic’s. I could not find citristrip, so I used this other stuff (see pic). Getting the powder coat off was not too difficult. Definitely messy and had to do several applications. The imperfections in the steel revealed by removing the powder coat were disappointing. I tried to capture some of them in the pics. The knife is a decent user, and I tried to put a mirror edge on it despite the imperfections in the steel. Happy to have this off the bench, it took more time than I wanted to invest. Ready to move onto the next project!! Thanks for the input.

Cosmo

 

[Lapedog]

So I am finally done with this knife and thought I would post some pic’s. I could not find citristrip, so I used this other stuff (see pic). Getting the powder coat off was not too difficult. Definitely messy and had to do several applications. The imperfections in the steel revealed by removing the powder coat were disappointing. I tried to capture some of them in the pics. The knife is a decent user, and I tried to put a mirror edge on it despite the imperfections in the steel. Happy to have this off the bench, it took more time than I wanted to invest. Ready to move onto the next project!! Thanks for the input.

Cosmo

Should be fine as a user knife. I guess alot of the time they aren’t too worried about what the steel surface looks like underneath.

But I actually think it looks kind of cool. I especially like those grind lines on the bevel.

 

[bikerector]

The imperfections is always a risk on a coated blade, even for the more expensive brands like busse. If the blade is coated there's not need to finely finish the blade and even too nice of a finish would hurt the level of adhesion of the coating (scored vs unscored surface).

I may need to actually go back at my SP-53 with some stripper. The coating is pretty poor and I actually just scraped it off with a knife that I hate and has no value. It scratched it up a bit but I never intended it to be a looker and is very much a beater knife.