Blade finish question.......

jfever311

jfever311

Joined
Jun 14, 2007
Messages
537
After searching for the last hour, I'm just gonna freakin' ask. What coating is the closest color match to the bare metal beneath it? It would seem like TG maybe? I know the TG is a smoother coat. I just want a coating that when it does start to wear, it wont be as noticeable.

BTW, the knife I'm ordering is a CG AMS with colorful little combo of G10 and liners.
 
Sage or arctic white.. But it will still be noticeable.
 
TG is not a color, it is a knife model, Team Gemini, named after Jerry and Jennifer's twin sons.

but for matching color to steel ... maybe Tanker Gray?
 
Totally depends on the run of Tanker Gray. Some I've seen are pretty gray as you'd expect, but on the other hand, the version I got on my CG NMFSH a couple years back was pretty brownish with rainbow sparkles in the sunlight. :eek:
 
The ASH-1 (and probably other knives around that time) was available in a lighter grey called "urban grey" - it was pretty close to the metal color - maybe the custom shop could do a knife in that color?
 
There is no one right answer: It all depends on the color of the decarb (or if there is a decarb layer at all) under the coating. It can be from black to light gray depending on the model/batch/year it was produced in. My pics of my stripped blades are mostly after I cleaned off the decarb layer to get it down to competition finished bare infi so I am recalling the colors that stood out from memory. On many of the older blades, black blended best with the decarb color if it wasn't too light, that is how my old convex grind FSH is but I have not stripped it. HG55 had TWO layers of coating, tanker gray over black before getting to the decarb... it and a BATAC were medium gray decarb, similar to parkerized. First run BWM was dark gray to match tanker gray pretty well. The HG55 & BWM & FSH are in this pic. BATAC in the second with a CGFBM the shop did the stripping & CF on.
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The BATAC started out as urban gray for those that haven't seen the color before.
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NMFBM was very light gray, almost like the urban gray.
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I believe the Gladius was a medium-dark gray.
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I don't even remember what it looked like under the BOSS Jack proto's black coating anymore, after you strip enough of them it is hard to keep it all straight without photos to help. :foot:
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On my first basic 11, there was no decarb layer at all and so it was near satin underneath, easily scratched off and a very annoying contrast to the black, so it got stripped right away.
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Why not Double Cut. As I understand it, that really ain't a coating but a bead (or maybe grit) blast, actually two blasts with two different size media. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. It would still show usage, but not as obvious as satin and no coating wearing away. At least, that's what I reckon.
 
Oooh..... So I'm kinda back to square one. CG AMS with blue and black g10, red and white liners, and I'm torn between blade colors. I'm thinking a smoother coating would have less friction, thus cutting a little better, right? I'm also trying to keep this knife at or under $300, so no DC or satin. The black would look great and make the colors of the handles really pop, I think. But a TG or sage would maybe offer less cutting resistance. What do you guys think?
 
I prefer the Sage over the Tanker Gray...or Double Cut...The sage wears in real nice seems to be a smoother finish than the black or TG.
 
AZTimT,

Thanks for sharing your experience with the stripped blades – I would not have guessed the finish (or lack thereof) would vary that much under the coating. Great post, and nice assortment of knives!

By the way, what is your favorite handle color? ;):D
 
SpyderPhreak said:
Totally depends on the run of Tanker Gray. Some I've seen are pretty gray as you'd expect, but on the other hand, the version I got on my CG NMFSH a couple years back was pretty brownish with rainbow sparkles in the sunlight. :eek:
Click to expand...

Both of my recent tanker gray blades show red green and blue sparkles. I refer to it as Disco Gray.
 
kenash said:
Why not Double Cut. As I understand it, that really ain't a coating but a bead (or maybe grit) blast, actually two blasts with two different size media. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. It would still show usage, but not as obvious as satin and no coating wearing away. At least, that's what I reckon.
Click to expand...


Close. It is a two pass finish. Media/grit blast followed by glass bead to smooth and close up the surface. But it follows what is essentially a satin finish, so it is not a cheaper option.


jfever311 said:
Oooh..... So I'm kinda back to square one. CG AMS with blue and black g10, red and white liners, and I'm torn between blade colors. I'm thinking a smoother coating would have less friction, thus cutting a little better, right? I'm also trying to keep this knife at or under $300, so no DC or satin. The black would look great and make the colors of the handles really pop, I think. But a TG or sage would maybe offer less cutting resistance. What do you guys think?
Click to expand...


Just get whatever color will nicely go with your scales and then strip the blade and give it a ghetto satin.
 
gk4ever2 said:
AZTimT,

Thanks for sharing your experience with the stripped blades – I would not have guessed the finish (or lack thereof) would vary that much under the coating. Great post, and nice assortment of knives!

By the way, what is your favorite handle color? ;):D
Click to expand...

The correct one.
 
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