Blade coatings & finishes.

XtianAus

XtianAus

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Mar 3, 2016
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Which do you find most aesthically pleasing & which is/are your favourite/s?

If you have used a variety, how would you label them in terms of those:
*Most durable
*Average durability
*Least durable

I personally like the looks of desert sage, jungle green and artic white.

& as always...
Post some pics!
 
To me it depends on the knife. I think the best looking combo I've had was muddy brown with black canvas on my Double Talon Mistress, but i dont like that color at all on smaller blades. Couldn't say how durable any of them are though. Other than my first TGLB I have stripped every one before I've used them.

 
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In honest everyday use, no coating

I was stubborn and tried to make a black coated knife work, its the only one that seemed the smoothest and most durable, still not as pleasant as no coat. Next in line was the sage coating, its actually thinner a coat than the black.

The most frustrating was the old desert tan, that stuff was like sand paper. It looks really cool though. Had a Camp Tramp in Desert Tan, It stuck like a son of a gun in soft wood. I stripped it and found the roughest grind marks I've ever seen. I figure it helps with the coating to adhere because it did everything it could to stay on that knife! :p
 
leatherman said:
In honest everyday use, no coating

I was stubborn and tried to make a black coated knife work, its the only one that seemed the smoothest and most durable, still not as pleasant as no coat. Next in line was the sage coating, its actually thinner a coat than the black.

The most frustrating was the old desert tan, that stuff was like sand paper. It looks really cool though. Had a Camp Tramp in Desert Tan, It stuck like a son of a gun in soft wood. I stripped it and found the roughest grind marks I've ever seen. I figure it helps with the coating to adhere because it did everything it could to stay on that knife! :p
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Fair point! There are definitely advantages to strippers but not something i want to risk on my sr101 :D
 
Personally, Busse should move away from powder coatings. It sucks period. The durability depends on the thickness or how well it was cured. They should do peened finish which is far more durable than any finish they use, including double cut. Double cut imo is a glorified sand blasting the wears off easily.

DLC would be a great alternative.
 
XtianAus said:
Fair point! There are definitely advantages to strippers but not something i want to risk on my sr101 :D
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Bare SR101 is fun to play with. It's like an etcha-sketch. Try different patinas and if you don't like it, buff it off and try something else. Here's that same double talon after a vinegar bath and some mustard tiger stripes.
 
knife chop said:
Personally, Busse should move away from powder coatings. It sucks period. The durability depends on the thickness or how well it was cured. They should do peened finish which is far more durable than any finish they use, including double cut. Double cut imo is a glorified sand blasting the wears off easily.

DLC would be a great alternative.
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Why do you feel that it sucks so badly? How so?
 
clampdaddy said:
Bare SR101 is fun to play with. It's like an etcha-sketch. Try different patinas and if you don't like it, buff it off and try something else. Here's that same double talon after a vinegar bath and some mustard tiger stripes.
Click to expand...

Woah, that is one of the coolest patina's ive seen, nice!
 
I am always surprised at how durable the painted finishes are. I have a B11 that has processed 15 cubic meters of Goldern Cane Palms and barely shows.... I only have Black wrinkle finish and one Ceracote blade from Busse. I'm not that fussed on the other colours.. The Arctic White perhaps for novelty or some interesting combination on a safe queen.

For looks... Double Cut with Black Canvas... There is no substitute!

Good luck.

Lawrie
 
knife chop said:
Personally, Busse should move away from powder coatings. It sucks period. The durability depends on the thickness or how well it was cured. They should do peened finish which is far more durable than any finish they use, including double cut. Double cut imo is a glorified sand blasting the wears off easily.

DLC would be a great alternative.
Click to expand...

Although I am no fan of coatings either, isn't peened not cost effective either? I'd like to see what a blade looks like with a peened finish.

Busse DC is different than bead blast. Busse actually takes the blade to satin then does a fine bead blast to it, so the finish of the blade is very smooth much smoother than I have ever been able to achieve with a BB cabinet.
 
I like Busse's coatings, they make my purchases more affordable & are easy to remove as needed. ;)
It also helps that infi has no need for a coating and looks great nekkid! :thumbup:
 
I like a bit of patina on my uncoated sr101. It gives a knife character imho. In my reality, sr101 won't rust past the surface, and if there's a patina, sometimes even that won't happen. YMMV.
 
black paint when it smooths out and gets some character gouges is ok...but just ok...and I still find myself wondering if the gouges have created an avenue "under the surface" for the cancer to get a foothold...:(

for that reason, it's my personal belief that the more rust-prone the steel the less coating you want on it...

that seems counter-intuitive at first, I know...:confused:...but I like that everything is out in the open with uncoated blades, so to speak...:thumbup:

but for me, by far satin and competition finishes are the best performing and easiest to maintain...
I am always surprised that some users are "afraid" to use satin because it will "scratch." Now, I understand if you have a beyoooouteeefoooolll satin safe queen that you never want to use-- but if you want a user that you can make look like a new penny after some hard use, satin is the way to go. You may have to move up to a more coarse satin finish, but hitting the blade faces with some 200, 400, or 600 grit wet/dry 3M will erase, camoflauge, or reduce all but the deepest scratches. And of course you can just leave all the scratches...good character like Dan was saying.

I understand the economics of painting blades and I also, like Tim, don't mind stripping and don't mind "imperfections" in the finish. :)

In short...NO REGRETS!!!
 
Double cut is my favorite. By a long shot. Probably not on SR-101, though.
Of the paints that I've tried, muddy, tanker, and black are my favorite, in that order. Or maybe muddy, black, and tanker. Depends on the day and my mood. But ever since my first muddy blade, it has been my favorite.

It seems to be the smoothest that I've tried (sage, muddy, tanker, and black). It seems to wear reasonably well, although I haven't tried batoning wood with it.

Black seems just as smooth. Tanker a little smoother.

I did like sage, and have several in that color. But it is about my least favorite. ROUGH at the start, but wears to smooth, and then hangs around for a bit. But it has worn off pretty consistently. Course, most of my well-used Busse-kin are in sage. Gotta get a couple more colors tested out better!
 
Cobalt said:
knife chop said:
Personally, Busse should move away from powder coatings. It sucks period. The durability depends on the thickness or how well it was cured. They should do peened finish which is far more durable than any finish they use, including double cut. Double cut imo is a glorified sand blasting the wears off easily.

DLC would be a great alternative.
Click to expand...
Although I am no fan of coatings either, isn't peened not cost effective either? I'd like to see what a blade looks like with a peened finish.

Busse DC is different than bead blast. Busse actually takes the blade to satin then does a fine bead blast to it, so the finish of the blade is very smooth much smoother than I have ever been able to achieve with a BB cabinet.
Click to expand...

It's called Double Cut because it is blasted with 2 different mediums!

Peened finish... Some steels, especially the modern powder steels, are not suitable for forging, maybe INFI & SR-101 aren't either?
 
Xtian,
Moss green and probably the 'hammered silver' or whatever folks call the stuff on some of the grab bag's blades would be the smoothest coatings (moss green is smoother than anything else I've got that's coated) and therefore more 'hard wearing' coatings used by Busse/Kin.
There's nothing to worry about satin or DC SR-101! Just use it for some food prep, or force patina with vinegar, lemon juice, mustard... blood... and you'll never have to worry again. Sure, SR-101 will not be best choice for ocean/sea diving knife knife, but you really don't have to worry about the knives if you use them.
 
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