Coated blades

Coated blades?

  • Total voters
    68
  • Poll closed .
sliceofaloha

sliceofaloha

Joined
Oct 4, 2018
Messages
753
Im not a fan of coated blades. I get that some ppl love the blackout look and I can see a military use for non reflective coating. Once the coatings wear more than a little it’s just not a look I like.

Understood that non stainless gets protection by being coated.

I like that Spyderco will offer a non coated m4, for example, while BM won’t sell an 810 regular Contego without a coating. I’m a big boy, I can take care of my blades.

My only experience is with BM coatings. Educate me, change my mind. I’m sure different coatings wear differently.
 
I like the DLC coatings on my American Lawman/Recon 1 and the whatever-it-is on my BassPro 110 in CPM-154 -- titanium nitride or something. Both very hard and smooth. Don't quite care for the black, softer coating (whatever it is) on my Cabela's Grippie in D2; it scratches quite easily. Then there's my original Blackjack Campanion which has some incredibly tough epoxy on the 1095 blade, which I appreciate for its rust protection.
 
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Nope.
Looks good for the catalog shoot. That's about it.
I got all excited about my first one because of vids saying how DLC is very slick / practically frictionless if two DLC surfaces are facing.

It didn't take long . . . I slid the edge of my thumb nail down the side of the DLC coated blade and down the side of an identical model knife with no DLC. . . . before I determined for my self uncoated is lower friction in the product that I purchased.

Turns out that to have non reflective means making the surface rough; think very fine wet or dry sand paper. When a mirror polished blade is offered with DLC I might take another glance. (WE knives are a bit thick for me; I like them "wimpy" knives like Para2s (much thinner).

I put Black Beauty in the safe, my first safe queen, . . . it's not a safe by the way; I don't have a safe (it's a drawer) . . . and moved on. I couldn't bear to think of that knife scratched up / it looks too cool all fresh from the factory.
(I must confess to latter purchasing the same knife (Para2) in cammo with the DLC blade and am OK hard using it and scratching it up. Some how the look of it doesn't bother me; just the all black one would have bothered me all scratched up.
 
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I prefer satin finish then stone wash. Some i don't mind like esee or beckers. There used more outdoors and that extra prote tion is welcomed. But in an edc or stainless i rathee not have coated.
 
It's mostly an option for variety for me. The wear on coating for knives aren't equal. Spyderco DLC looks great when it's worn to me. Old school Cold Steel coatings, not so much.
 
If it's coated and I like it, I would not use it as it gets ugly fast. I have coated blades but would not buy more.
Satin is best for me.
 
I won't change your mind at all, I can maintain my steel just fine.

I don't need no super secret coating on my mountain bike, my clam shovel, my splitting maul or my machete.

And I don't need one on my knife neither.
 
I've had this for maybe ~8 years and it's the most carried knife I have:

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I only have one knife with a coated blade. The little para3 in m4 shall sit in its original packaging in a drawer to remind me never to buy a coated blade again. I tested it once they day it came in the mail by slitting coax jacket and the slicing ability after mere inches was deplorable, nails on a chalkboard. If Spyderco ever offers a blade replacement option whereas I can exchange the black one with a non coated in the same steel Id send it in so fast.....
 
CableGirl said:
I only have one knife with a coated blade. The little para3 in m4 shall sit in its original packaging in a drawer to remind me never to buy a coated blade again. I tested it once they day it came in the mail by slitting coax jacket and the slicing ability after mere inches was deplorable, nails on a chalkboard. If Spyderco ever offers a blade replacement option whereas I can exchange the black one with a non coated in the same steel Id send it in so fast.....
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This doesn't add up. I've owned multiple Militaries and Paramilitaries with and without coating, and currently have a non-coated Military, a coated PM2 and coated Para 3. In none of those knives has the coating interfered with slicing ability. If you're experiencing that, it's likely due to the edge.
 
What doesn't add up? the coating makes it a horrible knife for slicing through the outer jacket on coax bundles which is what I use a work knife for.

For my work I have to slice lengthwise through the outer insulation of cable when repairing or replacing cables on medical equipment. The material is a hard white vinyl type material approx 1/16th to 1/8th inch thick. Ive used non coated Para2, Griptillian, Casbah, 940, Bugout, Buck 110/112, Opinel carbon, X-acto, Victorinox, GEC, Stanley Utility blades, Mercator k55k, Douk Douk and a Fallkniven F1..... the list goes on.

Granted some worked better than others but all the above knives without coatings performed notably better at passing through the materials I use them for than the coated M4 blade. Its really quite simple for me, I can tell withing inches if a knife will work well. The Para2 without coating performs much better than the Para3 with the coating. Both will shave hair so sharpness is at least comparable.
 
CableGirl said:
What doesn't add up? the coating makes it a horrible knife for slicing through the outer jacket on coax bundles which is what I use a work knife for.

For my work I have to slice lengthwise through the outer insulation of cable when repairing or replacing cables on medical equipment. The material is a hard white vinyl type material approx 1/16th to 1/8th inch thick. Ive used non coated Para2, Griptillian, Casbah, 940, Bugout, Buck 110/112, Opinel carbon, X-acto, Victorinox, GEC, Stanley Utility blades, Mercator k55k, Douk Douk and a Fallkniven F1..... the list goes on.

Granted some worked better than others but all the above knives without coatings performed notably better at passing through the materials I use them for than the coated M4 blade. Its really quite simple for me, I can tell withing inches if a knife will work well. The Para2 without coating performs much better than the Para3 with the coating. Both will shave hair so sharpness is at least comparable.
Click to expand...

You may be right on that, but I'm curious if you ruled out other factors, such as the edge angle, which would have a much more significant influence on most cutting tasks. You can have two edges that shave and still have variation on the edge angle. That said, you clearly have more experience with cutting through this particular medium.
 
I can say with confidence that coating vs non-coating on the Military/ PM2/ Para 3 has minimal to no impact on slicing/ cutting ability at least for the vast majority of cutting tasks. I haven't experienced it as being an issue after having owned at least 10 variations on these models over the last 10+ years, and since being a member here since 2006, I don't recall ever reading about that as an issue.
 
Satin - > Stonewash - > Bead Blast -> Coated. Order of Preference. Satin just looks the best to my eyes, Stonewash is the most practical/user friendly if you dislike scratches, Bead Blast looks classy but scratchy scratchy, Coated can be a stylistic choice that is neat and I have some blades like that, but again scratchy scratchy if you don't keep an eye on what you cut and how.
 
I only have two knives with coating both from Cabelas, the Alaskan Guide series Buck 110, and 192 Vanguard. I think it’s titanium nitride coating. So far they still look new after 6 years of use but I don’t get to aggressive with them. I prefer the satin or stonewashed finish something low glare and don’t show scratches as easily. I haven’t had much experience with coatings and most all my knives are of a stainless variety except a few case cv blades. I do have a cheap multi tool gifted by my employer that is coated with something that scratches very easily. Other than that I don’t have much knowledge of them. I usually like the look and appearance of a satin finish on most anything and shy away from polished high luster finish.
 
I have three coated blades, and two are DLC. I like that the Recon 1 and Master Tanto’s coatings do an excellent job hiding wear, but I can’t say I see much other benefit. I’ve gotten surface oxidation on my 3V Master Tanto that was harder to see because of the coating; I see it as a mostly cosmetic feature that I could take or leave.
 
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