Blade Coatings???

Ookpik

Ookpik

Joined
Dec 18, 2002
Messages
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I know that black coating on a blade is a personal thing. Some people like it, other people don't. If I did buy a knife with a coated blade, what coating is the best? I want something that is hard, won't scratch, and won't wear off. What have you heard and what have you experienced? Thanks for your help.
 
They all scratch or wear off, the powder coat from esee is very good, the dlc coating from zt knives is pretty good, and the gunkote coating from chris reeve knives is good. They will all wear with use.

take it easy
cricket
 
+1. DLC (diamond like coating) is very scratch resistant. Kershaw/ZT uses this on their black blades.
 
Whatever the coating is on the CS Bushman. That stuff didn't wear off for anything shy of hitting a rock (I am terrible at throwing). Chopping tree limbs off did absolutely nothing to it.
 
+1 more on kershaw's DLC. My friend has it on his shallot which he's had for two years and it looks almost new.
 
They all can wear off, just depends on how hard you use it. The friction of batoning will do it. If the knife only cuts soft material, it may last a real long time. Friction and the material being cut will determine how long the coating wears off. Chopping will wear closer to the edge, vs batoning which will wear all the way up the grind.
 
DLC is an excellent coating. If it appears to have a metallic scratch, it is probable that it is the metal of some other object that has rubbed off onto the DLC. Another great coating is Buck's Titanium Aluminum Nitride, which is shiney and tough as nails. You can see it in my avatar, coating an Alpha Dorado.
 
DLC is a tough coating but the cost to get a knife coated is insane. Not cost effective. Cerakote is a ceramic based coating that is tough and wears very well.
 
Tyronethepro said:
The Cerakote Gen II from Benchmade is very good also.
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That's good to hear because I really like BM, in general, but my experience with their other coating was horrible. In fact, Benchmade produced one of the two WORST coatings I've ever seen. The other was on an Ontario GenII SP42. That knife and my Nimravus were down right shameful. The coating would almost fall off the blade, if you stared at it too long. Seriously, it took very little to wear the coating off either of those knives. At the opposite end of the spectrum would be: my ESEE, my Recon Tanto, my Rodent Waki. These coatings aren't going anywhere and they do not live anything resembling a sheltered life.
 
The coating on my esee has held up really good. The coatings on my CS recon 1 and american lawman are both scratched to hell but still great knives. I've actually stripped the coating off of my recon 1 and was surprised to find a very nice looking satin finish.
 
ESEE coatings are strong as crap! I have stripped a lot of knives and ESEE's are the toughest.
 
zignal_zero said:
That's good to hear because I really like BM, in general, but my experience with their other coating was horrible. In fact, Benchmade produced one of the two WORST coatings I've ever seen. The other was on an Ontario GenII SP42. That knife and my Nimravus were down right shameful. The coating would almost fall off the blade, if you stared at it too long. Seriously, it took very little to wear the coating off either of those knives. At the opposite end of the spectrum would be: my ESEE, my Recon Tanto, my Rodent Waki. These coatings aren't going anywhere and they do not live anything resembling a sheltered life.
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I put my new Griptilian with the Cerakote Gen II through its paces, not even a scratch on the finish. Its actually probably the knife with the best finish I own.
 
Here are the coatings on my Ontario Tak-1, Zt0500, and Zt0350.


As you can see they have all been used and even with the DLC on the ZT's, it does scratch and show wear. You can't really prevent the scratches if you're using your blades.
 
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