DLC Coating

A

andrewluu740

Joined
Feb 25, 2016
Messages
28
Hey guys!
There are many knives out there that have a mirror polished blade thats been DLC coated and gives this marvelous black luster to the blade ex. (Rockstead/Marfione). My question is does DLC coat the blade and still show the finish that the steel has underneath? I'm asking because I have a custom UTX-85 that has a stonewash DLC blade and wanted to know if it was stonewashed before or after coating.

And coming off that, if bead blasted titanium was DLC coated, would you still have the matte feel to the titanium or would it be glossed over?
 
DLC will show the same finish as the underlying steel. And only steel can be DLC coated. <--- So I was wrong about that, technology changes. Sue me! :p :rolleyes:
 
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SpyderPhreak said:
DLC will show the same finish as the underlying steel. And only steel can be DLC coated.
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Then why does this say about the ZT 0804:

" The titanium locking side is DLC coated to match the all-black aesthetic of the knife and it really does look good. There is a stainless lock insert, as there should be on a Ti flipper and the pocket clip is a machined titanium and really looks great on the knife. It is, of course, DLC coated to match. "

Above is from a review. Below ZT's site.

"The 0804CF’s handle has a carbon-fiber front and a DLC-coated titanium back. "

Plus: http://racetechtitanium.com/services/dlc-coating/

This company even DLC coats pistons, which are made of cast aluminum alloy.
 
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Yeah those rockstead dlc finishes are beautiful. You can a reflection in the mirror finish of them. I have a spyderco mamba and black(dlc) ppt and i can see the grind lines clearly on them like you would on any other spyderco with a satin finish.
 
Love DLC as a coating!

CAM06162_zpszn6y0xoo.jpg
 
Hey! :)
I've been bugged by the likelihood of corrosion with my trapped steel liners on the PM2.
I called a local shop that does DLC services and they can make my liners bulletproof, but for the price of starting up their machine I wanted to fill it up with liners.
Anyone interested in this? I figure if we get the configuration on their platen right, we could fit maybe 50 people and get costs down to somewhat realistic levels. IF you consider never worrying about liner corrosion worth $50.

My main worry is long term saltwater exposure and I don't want to have to keep my liners dry, oiled, and clean all the time.

Once we're organized, the turnaround time can be fairly quick.
 
This blade is at the DLC shop now. I can't wait to see it afterward.
IMG_3271.jpg


Benchmade (Ritter) Griptilians in CPM-M4 were stonewashed after the DLC. They have a VERY cool finish. I asked Doug about it at last year's Blade Show. "Never again" is what he said.
IMG_3112.jpg
 
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Wolverine666 said:
Why "never again" ?
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I can only imagine that he had a hard time getting the desired effect using whatever abrasive medium he "washing" the blades with. Diamond-Like Carbon coating, as thin as it is, is still fairly resistant to scratches, ya know, because it's diamonds.
 
falar said:
Strange that I have plenty of titanium w/DLC finish on my ZTs.
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Yeah, so the tech. used to apply the DLC has changed somewhat over the last few years, and I wasn't completely aware that they could do real DLC over Ti and some other materials now. So sue me! :p :rolleyes:
 
DLC is pretty sweet... I'm almost there as far as providing this as a coating option on knives I work on :D. It generally runs in the 80-90hrc+ range and is approximately 3-5um (microns) thick - so it's extremely thin and as others have stated it doesn't hide anything but rather reveals the same finish through the coating. And while it's not generally designed for corrosion protection, it actually does provide a decent amount in my testing. It can be applied to steel, ti, and aluminum (with different PVD coatings being applied to plastics and optics), although for aluminum it creates a sort of eggshell effect since the aluminum is so soft underneath if you drop it or hit it on something hard it will get into the aluminum. Sandblasting will provide a matte finish, bead blasting will provide a satin type finish, and as ground or mirror polished will produce the same (here is a video I did of my ZT 0561 after it was DLC'd to give you an idea).

To be clear, PVD stands for Physical Vapor Deposition and multiple different coatings can be applied through this process (uses a gas in a vacuum chamber to deposit certain metals physically onto the surface of the object). In the case of DLC (i.e. Diamond Like Carbon) the gas is carrying and depositing a super hard carbon onto the surface of the knife blade, but it is still done through the PVD process.

Another consideration is the deposition (i.e. processing) temperature. For DLC coatings these vary across a broad range, from about 200F to 900F on up. For our purposes we want to stay at 400F or less, generally speaking, although even at this temp some steels cannot take it and retain the factory hardness (has to be decided on a case by case basis).

Recently I have been comparing different DLC and PVD coating options... for example, in the image below each knife processed about 500ft of cardboard. I am only interested in providing the best option possible for the knives I work on, thus the testing.

i-RtxfcW3-X2.jpg


Here is a pic with a bead blasted sub finish after the 500 ft of cardboard/ea knife. The PVD coating is on the left, DLC on the right. Virtually no wear, testing to continue =)

i-tbDD98Z-X2.jpg
 
sre1 said:
This blade is at the DLC shop now. I can't wait to see it afterward.
IMG_3271.jpg


Benchmade (Ritter) Griptilians in CPM-M4 were stonewashed after the DLC. They have a VERY cool finish. I asked Doug about it at last year's Blade Show. "Never again" is what he said.
IMG_3112.jpg
Click to expand...
Gorgeous Ritters. Any chance you want to let them go? :)
 
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