Blade Coatings: yes or no?

AsianBeerCan

AsianBeerCan

Joined
Aug 25, 2015
Messages
81
Hey BF.

I have come across many different people on this website as well as other sites who scoff at knives with coated blades, sometimes even saying that they can't even consider purchasing a knife with a coated blade (I've heard people say this about the ZT804CF). I personally like the look of a black colored blade for modern folding knives. Why do people dislike blade coats?
 
its personal preference. some people just dont like it just because. No reason.

also gives the knife a military "tactical" appearance that some of us are not into.


its a DLC coating on the zt so no increased resistance or chipping
 
ac1cc195adc2ced0ae47cb8680e527ba.jpg


I absolutely love my 0804cf. The only thing to kick it out of my pocket so far was my sebenza 25 and that was only for an hour or so today. The 0804cf has dlc coating and is the best of all the coatings in my opinion. I've cut aluminum cans and several other abrasive things and I can tell it's been used but it's not terrible.

On the other hand I love blades without coatings such as my sebenza. I choose to not do food preparation with my coated blades also. It's up to yourself and if you actually use you're knife and if you can deal with the coating being scratched.
 
I like for my fixed blades to be coated, to help with corrosion, since I use my fixed blades outdoors in the woods 90% of the time. I like for my folders to be uncoated though. I did just buy a coated folder, so go figure.
 
Only coating I've found even moderately worthwhile is dlc coating and even it scratches and sucks.
 
My "first knife" was a Benchmade with a bk coated blade. I carried it for 2 years and used it moderate-heavily up until about 2 months ago.



It looked much nicer when it was once new :D



Prefer non-coated blades now days. Has even turned me away from some knives, mainly stainless ones. Also starting to prefer the look of plain steel (love a light stonewashed finish) over the "black tactical". Unless its a HC steel like 1095 or a tool steel like M4 then I dont mind since it usually on there to help prevent rust/corrosion. Regardless, Ill do my best to stick to non-coated.
 
Fixed blades I can take it or leave it, it really does not matter much to me. On folders I have always preferred stonewashed but still own a few DLC coated knives. Some coats hold up better than others. Stonewashed blades have always just appealed to me more but that does not stop me from owning something coated if I like it enough!

A few of the ones that I could not resist:

https://flic.kr/p/P83dJM https://www.flickr.com/photos/57703464@N02/
 
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I don't mind parkerizing ( I guess it's a coating ) or black coating on the venerable mk2 / kabar as that's kind of just how it is, but other than that I'm not really into it.
Stainless Steel doesn't need it, it prevents patina on a carbon steel which won't rust if I can and do take care of it. ( just as the gi's and the environments they served in, I'm sure some people probably have a physical need for a coated blade )
It does have a tacticool look that I'm not really into, but with knives like my old Gerber ridge it is kind of nice as it now has character other than just scratched up stainless Steel that usually looks like crap.

I'd say I prefer not to have a coated blade, but am not really sure if I'd consider it a deal breaker.
 
I have no dislike of coated blades, i just prefer non-coated blades. I would want a coated blade for certain kives for certain applications.
 
AsianBeerCan said:
Hey BF.

I have come across many different people on this website as well as other sites who scoff at knives with coated blades, sometimes even saying that they can't even consider purchasing a knife with a coated blade (I've heard people say this about the ZT804CF). I personally like the look of a black colored blade for modern folding knives. Why do people dislike blade coats?
Click to expand...

I thought this was a great topic so copied the idea and put it out there on some of our social media. I will report back the findings!
 
I personally like quite a bit about a good DLC coating. The only thing that makes me give pause is being able to easily fix a rounded or broken tip without completely screwing the coating up on the spine. And the rexford 804 is a great looking knife. Almost enough to make me overcome my hesitation.
 
While I prefer uncoated blades, some of the Cold Steel offerings have made me more accepting of dlc blades. I don t believe non knife people think that coated knives appear more threatening. I don t think the benefit of the coating is that great.
 
I prefer coatings because when I come in from extreme cold knives or axes will 'sweat' or form a moisture coating from the warm room, requiring a wipe off and oiling or whatever you do. And cutting tools end up forgotten at times in vehicles for extended periods, or whatever. I remember following other members in the Becker sub forum a few years back and getting into the blade stripping craze. Then I realized that all I was doing was creating more maintenance for myself with all that exposed shiny steel. It just made no sense to me. I once left an uncoated folder clipped to the inner top of my winter boot exposed to the humidity and salt of the environment. It only took a couple of days, after I forgot about the knife, to find small rust dots. Coating are no excuse for neglect or a lack of maintenance, but cutting tools can be forgotten about after a long day outside. I prefer to clean up along a cutting edge as opposed to finding an entire blade, or axe head, a rust mottled mess. I sprayed clear lacquer on my better axes last year as opposed to painting them, every bit helps.... But to each their own.
 
I am not sure what additional benefits the coating has other than preventing the blade from corrosion and making it less reflective of lights (this latter one is not even beneficial for civilian users). I have yo say that a highly mirror polished edge on a black coated blade looks more attractive too.

Other than these, coated blades are more sensitive to scratching and scratches, and usually come with added manufacturing costs.
 
I don't mind about DLC coated blades
It is just about accepting that the coating may get some scratches and get some patina
Depending on how hard you use your knives it will get more or less marks

I have a PM2, a BM943, a ZT0801BK and an extrema ratio BF1T with black blades and they all looks nice
The PM2 had harder use so he as some more marks but the DLC hold on pretty good



Envoyé de mon iPhone en utilisant Tapatalk
 
Thread needs more pics.





It's all in the eye of the beholder. Does that Sere look good, or bad? However it looks to you, there's no denying it has tons of character. It's at least partly due to the almost non-existent scratched up, beat up blade coating.
 
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