Buck 119 Brahma - DO NOT TAPE THE BLADE!

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unimogbert

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Jul 15, 2015
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I'll have a much longer story posted in the Buck forum when I get some pictures but want to get this out there.

The Buck 119 Brahma is a variant of the long lived Buck 119 Special.
The Brahma has a leather washer handle, a steel end cap, and a dark colored blade. Military style.

I've found that the dark color could initially be wiped off a bit on a cloth. Not dramatic though.

But when I taped the blade to do some things with it on my Edge Pro Apex I found that when I removed the tape - more color came with it.
It's not hugely obnoxious such as showing white metal but the dark color is lighter and there is some mottling from where the tape was not applied.
It's not as evident as the acid patina some folks put on their 1095 blades but this is no longer a show knife.

This might just be my knife but...... I thought I should share this with the sharpening folks.
 
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Thanks for sharing. This is good to know, as I am interested in buying one sometime. What do you think of it so far?
 
I'd like to modify my warning-

DO NOT TAPE THE BLADE UNLESS YOU ARE READY TO SPEND CONSIDERABLE TIME WIPING DOWN THE BLADE AND REMOVING THE BLACKENING DOWN TO A STABLE LAYER.

As I was taking pictures for the writeup I will do I got to wiping further. Using some Remoil and patches I wiped some more. Black continued coming off. The dry wiped and got some more black. But eventually it stopped and left a nice #2 pencil gray coloration on the blade with no mottling.

So if you are sharpening a customer's knife, be prepared for this as initially the tape removal will reveal an alarming finish on the blade.
 
unimogbert said:
I intend to write it up in the Buck forum. Have to figure out how to post pictures to do an adequate job.
Click to expand...

You can upload pictures to the internet using photobucket. When you select the photo you uploaded, there will be a small list of different URL type things on the right that say Email, Direct, HTML, IMG. Left click once the IMG option. The URL looking thingy, not the word "IMG". Just paste that into the forum page, and you are in bidness.
 
That's one way to do it.
First we'll see if the way I know how to do it on another forum works. I took pictures and resized them tonight.

I learned that if you wipe the knife hard and continuously the coating eventually stops coming off leaving you with a nice #2 pencil gray color. No mottling.
 
That will happen on any dark blade. Just wipe the blade down with oil.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
That will happen on any dark blade. Just wipe the blade down with oil.
Click to expand...

I hadn't seen it on epoxy coated (Spec Plus), phosphate coated (Camillus), Parkerized (Springfield Armory) or gun blued (Ruger) steel before.
Edit- Also just checked a CRKT M16-14FS and a Buck Iceman both NIB. Neither put anything on the cloth when wiped.

Could you be more specific about what type coatings you expect need to be heavily wiped multiple times?
 
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Tape removes most surfectants (including oils) from a blade's surface rather efficiently. That's why you can discern where the tape was.
I said nothing about heavily wiping with oil. A quick squirt of WD 40 or a wipe with oil will make the coloration uniform again.
 
The tape removed color. Wiping removed color. I haven't had that happen before. It was alarming.
I really don't think it's normal for all black blades as you have asserted.
 
I got a Buck Vantage Force Pro last week, which has a carbon oxide finish. I imagine it is probably the same process they used on the Brahma. It is the first knife I have ever had where the coating comes off on your hands.

I have done about 5 wipedowns with Hoppes and towels and what not. Seems to stabilize, but am still pulling ghost traces off. I imagine over time, it will probably wear better, but I see your point if you are sharpening somebody else's knife. I wish Buck had a little note with the knife telling you about it, as I was unprepared.
 
Buck's own site describes a 'black powdercoat finish' for the blade on this knife, on a page of new offerings debuting at the 2015 SHOT Show (linked and quoted below). Whatever that means, or how it was applied, I don't know.

(Quoted from: http://www.buckknives.com/press/buck knives to debut many new products at 2015 shot show/ ):
"Buck took the popular 119 and is now offering a new version with a beautiful stacked Leather/Micarta handle, and 420HC steel with a black powdercoat finish blade in a M.O.L.L.E com¬patible sheath. The 119 Brahma also features a front guard and updated pommel assemblies"
Click to expand...

I'd assume wiping down the blade to remove the loosely-bound coating material, thereby leaving a more stable layer is probably the thing to do. It's a 420HC blade and it doesn't particularly need a protective coating anyway; seems it's just there for aesthetics, and isn't likely to add much else.


David
 
Not to get off topic of the Brahma, but I got a new Vantage with the coated blade and it looked horrible. I sent it back to Buck about 15 minutes after I received it. Had to go back for the centering issue anyway, but that coating was not what I was expecting.
 
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