Coating toughness

R

RaiShen

Joined
May 1, 2009
Messages
19
Hi All,

I saw a lot of beautiful pictures that members uploaded here (they are beautiful by the way).
Somehow I noticed that the black coating is coarser than the other color (sage, green, tan, etc).
Is it just my eyes or are they really different?

I also read somewhere here that the black coating is easier to strip off than the sage/other color.
If so, then it is not just a matter of different paint color, which one is the toughest color (if any) for a user?

What is exactly the coating made of?

If this topic already discussed earlier, my apology.
I tried to look at old threads but havent found the right thread.

Thanks.
RS
 
electrically charged ceramic powders and infi dust. :confused:

i've found the smoother hard coats like the jungle green to be considerably more durable then the black, and even the desert sage. the black feels almost soft after you've tried to rub off the jungle green.
 
so it is in this order (decreasing toughness) : OD Green > Sage > Black ?
Can we order like Sage color but in the OD Green type of coating? (or maybe it is already exist now) ?
 
i disagree, the black wrinkle is as tough as a camel's rectume.

it's either dry, wet, or being pounded on buy the force's of nature.
there is no inbetween with either of them.

i'll take some pics thursday.
 
The OD green coating does seem to be really tough. The desert sage is tough, too, but perhaps not exactly as tough as the OD. The black coating seems to be the least tough of them all, in my experience. It wears off relatively fast, much faster than sage or OD.
 
Out of curiosity I visited again Kent Lunde wallpaper page (http://lundestudio.com/bussecombat.html), there he uploaded Hi-Res pictures of Busse knives in different coating.
(comparison might not be from same type of knife, I'll put the knife on bracket)

It seems that Green (FFFBM) and Sage (FFFBM) are almost the same in term of coating smoothness (green might be slightly smoother, it's not that clear in the pictures).
Black (NMSFNO) is definitely the coarsest.
Tanker gray (BOS HG55) texture seems between sage and black

Another different texture is the urban grey (FFFBM), I dont know how to describe it, the coating looks like wrinkled paint (not grainy like the above 3 colors, and it looks a bit glossy too).
This kind of wrinkled & bit glossy texture is also seen on Arctic white (NMSFNO) and Sage (Scotch Dispenser).
Dont know how this coating stands against the other.

This might not mean anything at all, maybe I read too deep on the pictures.
But it will never hurt to bring it to people here :p
 
they are all pretty tough. but. Like LVC said. The jungle green is hard to get off,, even with a Media cabinet
 
For what it's worth, I had a much harder time stripping the black coating than the jungle green. I used Kleen Strip stripper, and the jungle green came right off. The black was much less affected by it.
 
Think of it this way - the more "bumpy" the coating the more likely it will get abraded off. Then there's also chipping of the coating, which does happen especially at the edge, tip, and spine. Even with chipped and abraded coating, you still get a lot of INFI protection, and it looks loved.
 
In my experience, the "bumpy" part of the more highly-textured coatings wears smooth well before it wears off. You notice the coating wearing the first few times you use the knife, but once the rough texture smooths out, it stays on there pretty good. The coatings Busse uses are tough.

If you're buying the knife as a user, I wouldn't worry about the coating too much. Once you use the knife, it won't look pristine any more, but will acquire character- which has a beauty of its own. If you do manage to wear a spot of coating completely off (you will never be able to "strip" a blade completely by using it, no matter how hard you try)- the exposed metal won't rust much- INFI is fairly corrosion resistant. The coating will wear first, and most, in the "sweet spot"- the part of the blade that you use the most. The rest of the coating will stay relatively intact- more so the farther you get from the edge. If coating wear becomes a problem after a few years, you can always send it back in to the shop to be cleaned up and recoated. :thumbup:

Just beat 'em! That's what they're for!
 
I think the roughest/coarsest coating is the out of production tan coating.

That stuff is like 80 grit sandpaper.

And the smoothest being jungle green or arctic white.
 
i can dent the black with my fingernail, where as I can't touch the green. i'd have to bite it to get a good mark in it.

isn't the tanker gray put on top of black? i recall at least one photo of it wearing off, and black being underneath it.

i'm not saying the black is easy to rub off or that it's not a tough coating - it'll take a long time and a lot of abuse to get it to come off through use. it's just that it feels like a powder coat, and the green feels like a ceramic baked on coat (not quite a glaze, but close)
 
oge14 said:
i disagree, the black wrinkle is as tough as a camel's rectume.

it's either dry, wet, or being pounded on buy the force's of nature.
there is no inbetween with either of them.

i'll take some pics thursday.
Click to expand...

Dude. No. And hell no. We don't need camel-butt pix. And HOW do you know how tough. . . nevermind. Hell no on that too. :D

Last Visible Canary said:
i can dent the black with my fingernail, where as I can't touch the green. i'd have to bite it to get a good mark in it.

isn't the tanker gray put on top of black? i recall at least one photo of it wearing off, and black being underneath it.

i'm not saying the black is easy to rub off or that it's not a tough coating - it'll take a long time and a lot of abuse to get it to come off through use. it's just that it feels like a powder coat, and the green feels like a ceramic baked on coat (not quite a glaze, but close)
Click to expand...

You got mighty tough fingernails.



Ditto on the tan = sandpaper. And mine are darker than "tan." They also, being very rough, smooth up rather quickly.

Urban Gray is just nasty. NASTY! It's like the covering of all the equipment in high school wood shop, only crinkled like the oil-based paint on an old front porch. ICK! I've had 2 blades in it. I just can't like it at all. Way too industrial-looking. Maybe after it got smoothed up a bit it'd look better. But Tanker Gray looks nicer.
 
Last Visible Canary said:
isn't the tanker gray put on top of black? i recall at least one photo of it wearing off, and black being underneath it.
Click to expand...

That black is under all the current coats if I've got the story straight. It's some kind of etched prep stage on the decarb layer. Makes the coating stick better. As long as it works.... :thumbup:
 
I used a brand new Sage coated GW to break apart a pallet, right when I got it. I had to see how tough INFI really was and I figured if you could break down a pallet by prying and batoning with a 3" blade, youd have proof enough.

The only casualty however was the coating...... I wish I would have taken pics, because that Sage coating was worn about 1/4", up to 1/2" from the edge by the time I finished. Im not knocking the toughness of the coating, but it seemed to wear really quick for the work it had done. I did a lot of splitting of the thinner boards that held the pallet together, and only split one of the thicker support boards. There were also some bare spots by the spine by the time I was finished as well. The coating had worn all the way down to the bare INFI, so I stripped the gal.

I have no other experience with coating wear, as I tend to strip it the minute I get it.

I have always wondered about the differences between the smooth vs "crinkle" coating and how they wore over time.......

Anyone have some shots of a well used Arctic White coating? I actually think that is one cool looking coating that could prove tough enough to stay on after some love. I want to pick up a blade in white, its something different.....
 
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