Ceracoat on a blade?

Sam Wilson said:
Certainly not being argumentative, but if it flakes at all it was applied improperly. Cerakote, and even more so GunKote, should be applied so thinly that flaking is not possible. If it flaked, surface prep wasn't done properly or was applied too thick. Applied properly, it will just slowly wear through.

For reference, on GunKote I apply it at 5-10 ten thousandth of an inch wet, that's .0005"-.00010". For reference, a sheet of paper is commonly .003"-.005" thick. Count them zeros.

Sam⚔️⚔️
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I had a Swamp Rat rodent trail that had digital camo cerakote and it flaked like crazy. Scraping it with a fingernail. But the layer on the bottom didn’t flake, it was pretty well stuck on.

I’ve had a few others that chipped, flaked off, wore, etc at different rates with use. Firearms as well. It’s not all that durable of a coating.

If OP wants something that lasts, DLC all the way. That shit wears like iron.
 
I believe you, my point was that if it flakes it was not applied properly. That's just the nature of the coating, applied correctly flaking isn't really possible. If we're making a fair comparison, that would be like comparing it to powder coat baked at the wrong temperature/duration.

It sounds like at least some of your knives were not finished correctly.

DLC may be the best option for him, maybe not. I don't know his requirements. But getting DLC refinished can be quite difficult or very expensive sometimes.

Sam⚔️⚔️

AntDog said:
I had a Swamp Rat rodent trail that had digital camo cerakote and it flaked like crazy. Scraping it with a fingernail. But the layer on the bottom didn’t flake, it was pretty well stuck on.

I’ve had a few others that chipped, flaked off, wore, etc at different rates with use. Firearms as well. It’s not all that durable of a coating.

If OP wants something that lasts, DLC all the way. That shit wears like iron.
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AntDog AntDog This is from Cerakote, and probably what happened to your digital cam finish. That has been my observation, as well..

Sam⚔️⚔️

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Sam Wilson said:
I believe you, my point was that if it flakes it was not applied properly. That's just the nature of the coating, applied correctly flaking isn't really possible. If we're making a fair comparison, that would be like comparing it to powder coat baked at the wrong temperature/duration.

It sounds like at least some of your knives were not finished correctly.

DLC may be the best option for him, maybe not. I don't know his requirements. But getting DLC refinished can be quite difficult or very expensive sometimes.

Sam⚔️⚔️
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I guess it wasn’t applied correctly by Busse Combat. I personally stripped most of the spine except for the tan base coat with my fingernail.

Little need to refinish DLC. I’ve never personally even heard of the need to have one refinished. It’s much harder than the blade steel and has to be mechanically scraped off by something harder than it is, which is damn rare.

Anyway, I’m done here. You’re the expert. You recommend him a coating.
 
AntDog AntDog Just trying to answer his question and be helpful, bud. I don't claim to have all the answers, I just do this 6 days a week and wanted to share my experience. And I did make a recommendation.

I get emails all the time wanting me to refinish blades with every type of coating you can imagine on them, including DLC, as have other knife makers that I know and work with. That is why I shared the information that I did. Have a good night, respect.👍


Sam⚔️⚔️

AntDog said:
I guess it wasn’t applied correctly by Busse Combat. I personally stripped most of the spine except for the tan base coat with my fingernail.

Little need to refinish DLC. I’ve never personally even heard of the need to have one refinished. It’s much harder than the blade steel and has to be mechanically scraped off by something harder than it is, which is damn rare.

Anyway, I’m done here. You’re the expert. You recommend him a coating.
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And I don't want to fan the flame here, but if you scraped the Cerakote off with your fingernail, it doesn't matter who applied it, it was done improperly. Every factory or company can make a mistake. I just don't want people to get the wrong idea about Cerakote.

Sam⚔️⚔️
 
Another option is a parkerized finish. It actually adheres to the metal but can only be done on high carbon steel. Being a gun guy, you’ve probably seen this before.
Here’s an example
IMG_8919.jpeg

T

Thread 'Forced Patina vs Bluing vs Parkerizing for a CS Pipe Hawk'

First of all I would like to say that I've done a lot of searching and all I ever come up with is the massive 118 page thread about modding the trail hawk, and other people asking about finishes that just get told to read that massive thread. I do not have the time to read 118 pages to get the info I need. I figure condensing the info into a smaller thread will be better than a lot of bits of info spread across 118 pages for many other people looking for the same info.


My girlfriend bought me a Cold Steel Pipe Hawk and I love it. Right away I nearly every throw with the thing. It's...
 
Seriously folks, thank you for the great responses. I've had very few coated knives in the past and honestly no idea what the coatings were. I typically go for an uncoated blade without even thinking about it but that Benchmade PSK got me interested.
 
I sprayed a rifle barrel with Brownells Gun-Kote about 15 years ago, and it still looks great. It's very thin, and hasn't shown any signs of flaking or chipping. Of course, it doesn't get the type of wear that a knife blade does, but I'm confident it will protect the steel for years to come.

With all that said, I prefer an uncoated blade, and just recently stripped the factory finish (looked like some type of epoxy paint, to me) off of a KaBar.
 
I have a Grippie in D2 with a Ceracote coating that has stood up pretty well, albeit it hasn't been used hard or in a corrosive environment. The only other coated blades are my American Lawman in CTS-XHP with a DLC coating that has held up extremely well, hardly shows a scratch, and a BassPro 110 in CPM-154 with some kind of hard gray coating (I forget what it is). All work, but I don't think they're really necessary given minimal care.
 
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