Blade coatings. How durable are they?

Does anyone have any specs on or had experience with blade coatings such as Black-T, BT2, Teflon? How do they stack up during general use?
 
How durable are they? There not. Period. I can't stand them. They're an ignorant way of keeping a blade from rusting. Until they peel off that is. Stay away from blade coatings.

This is of course only my opinion, some people probably like blade coatings. Just not me.
 
The only coating that I have found to be durable is a mil-spec parkerized finish, as seen on Newt Livesay's knives. Black-T, Roguard, etc. aren't as durable, although they provide far more protection than a parkerized finish, while they last, that is.
 
Disco Stu,
Just curious, have you ever had Black T PEEL off a blade. I mean by peel, come off in strips or something like that. I have had quite a few products, guns and knives, with Black T applied to them, and while they may wear over time, I have never seen one peel off the coating. Just curious....

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Stay Sharp!
Will Fennell
Camillus Cutlery
www.camillusknives.com
 
Cosmic Superchunk

Cosmic Superchunk

Joined
Jan 28, 2001
Messages
3,709
I've seen black teflon coatings come off within a few days of average use on knives such as the Gerber AR 3.00 and the Junglee Venom. I guess it's purely cosmetic.
 
It sure took a lot of elbow grease to polish the BT2 off of my Nimravus, but the coating is not durable at all. Just shoving it in and out of the sheath made it look crappy enough for me to want to get rid of it completely. Blade coatings suck.
 
I have blades with parkerised, Roguard, BT2 and powdered something finish.

The BT2 is the best, but it will come off with scratches etc. Roguard seems to stay in place almost as well.

I prefer a stonewash finish IMHO

But black is cool!

W.A.

------------------
"To strive to seek to find and not to yield"
Tennyson
Ranger motto

A few useful details on UK laws and some nice reviews!
http://members.aol.com/knivesuk/
 
Huh?! I own several parkerized finish blades and have no idea what you're talking about. On a couple, there is some very light scratching (mainly from the Kydex sheaths), but nothing like what you decribe. I have a KABAR with a parkerized finish that I've had for many years (~15) and while there are some scratches, it hasn't "flaked off" at all. I've used the HELL out of that knife. Is it possible that there are different kinds of parkerization? The blades on my parkerized knives are generlly in BETTER condition than my polished blades, which have been scuffed and scratched to hell.


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John Gonzalez
Exclusive Dealer
Mineral Mountain Hatchet Works
 
I know that any blade coating can get scratched and worn during constatnt use, however, I have had people tell me that the current coatings on their "tactical" folders have worn off quickly during moderate to light use.
 
Will, I'm not sure of the exact coating, but I have a Buck, model 560 I think, and the coating started to flake off after only days of very light use. Joe Houser was very helpful about getting it fixed but I'll never buy a coated blade again.

On top of that I think black coatings look bad. I paid for good steel, it shouldn't look like plastic.
 
I recently looked at an Emerson Mach 1 with a "chromium nitrate" coating. Does any one about this type of coating and or how it will last compared to Black-T?
 
Microtech's new black ti boride coating does not come off or show scratches in use. I used to be a big stonewash fan but this new black ti boride coating has taken over as my favorite. Was told that after talking to Microtech at the Shot Show, Benchmade will start using the same coating soon, probably the same as referred to in this post as BC1.
 
I have parkerized thousands of blades with no complaints from customers. One problem may be what steel is being parkerized. For example stainless and high chromium steels do not parkerize. D2 will not parkerize well. It seems the more rust resistant the steel the less its abilty to be parkerized. Parkerization is the same process as rusting basically. The difference being that the molecular exchange is between Manganese Phosphate and the steel rather than Oxygen and steel. The phosphates react with the steel to form a surface corrosion prior to oxygen. IE, no rust. My blades are 5160 spring steel or 1095 spring steel.They take to Parkerization very well.

Ted Frizzell
MMHW
 
The BT2 on my benchmade M2 800 AFCK (which has gotten a lot of use over the last couple of years) has worn to show the grind lines along the blade...and there are several scratches from doing unorthodox things as using it as a pry-bar when I had to...
However, it hasn't peeled, and it simply looks used. Moreover, the coating HAS prevented any rusting on the blade - which is the purpose. The edge does corrode rather quickly if not maintained well, but the coated part of the blade has never had any problem... so scratches or not, it works in protecting the blade...I don't care about it looking pretty - it's a user.

I imagine that if it weren't coated, it'd have pits all over itself by now with what it's been through.

I got an RTAK from Newt Livesay (love the thing - practically plan camping trips so I can take it out and chop with it) and so far I've given it a beating without encountering any scratches that have penetrated the depth of the coating... Yeah, it shows some light scuffing (which I may actually be able to rub out if I tried), but the finish has held up... so what these guys are saying about the parkerization being more durable must be true.

-ZZ
 
TiNi seem's to be a great alternative to your run of the mill black backed on crap. I have limited experience with it, but it's a hell of a lot better than my old epoxy finish on my SRK.
 
Two things I could live without: coatings and bead-blast finishes. Don't care for either but that's just my personal preference. However some of my most favorite knives have coatings on them. Wish they didn't. I have one high-dollar coated knife that chipped off a piece of the coating the first time I used it. And believe it or not, all I did was slice a radish! I've used it roughly since and no problem with the rest of the coating although I was afraid it was going to peel like a banana.

And the bead blast is a pain to keep clean. Loads up with dirt and when I use rouge to strop, I have to use solvent to remove it from a bead blast finish where I can just wipe if off of a satin finish.



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Hoodoo

I get some pleasure from finding a relentlessly peaceful use for a combative looking knife.
JKM
 
Hoodoo, what solvent did you use to remove the Glass Bead Finish (or rust finish as it seems)?

I want to remove the GBF on my Kasper and a couple of other blades.

W.A.

------------------
"To strive to seek to find and not to yield"
Tennyson
Ranger motto

A few useful details on UK laws and some nice reviews!
http://members.aol.com/knivesuk/
 
Coatings, like many other things in life, have the benefits and disadvantages.

The Kalguard that Chris Reeve uses seems to hold up ratehr well, compared to others.
 
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