Sorry for this delayed response, I was elk hunting
Titanium Nitride (TIN) is a gold finish that adds lubricity, protection and edge retention. You may have seen this type of coating on drill bits. It is used to make them harder and last longer.
Titanium Aluminum Nitride (TIALN) is layered over the TIN to obtain the near black finish, enhance the protection and improve the edge retention qualities.
Both of these finishes (by the same company we used) are on some Buck knives. Buck Knives proved the edge retention qualities and call it Buck-Kote. They are also on other manufacturers knives, incl Timberline who was the first to use it on their SpecWar.
I am not aware of any one testing the protective qualities. I can attest to a U.S.B.P. Agent who had a one of our gold (TIN) police models and would demonstrate by throwing the knife on the ground and ginding on it with his boot. All went well until he threw it down on some sharp, flint like, hard gravel and ground it with his boot - that did scratch it.
We were the first to experiment with these finishes on folding knives. We did mostly Spyderco, two Benchmade and three David Boye Basics. We stopped because the market was not ready and we were experiencing failures with Spyderco's lock spring. The hot vacuum chamber would sometimes weaken the spring. Since Spyderco folders cannot be taken apart prior to applying the finish, we abandoned the project.
WTFOver - We never marked the boxes except with a ballpoint pen to signify gold or black, so I am unable to give you any info on your Police models. However, to my knowledge, Blak-Ti's only added benefit is cosmetic.
Our project began in 1995 and ended in 1996. Here are the items we did successfully:
C01S, 2 black & 13 gold; 11 gold in stock.
C03PS, 13 black & 12 gold; 12 black & 10 gold in stock.
C05S, 24 black & 11 gold; 20 black & 10 gold
in stock.
C07S, 29 black & 11 gold; 3 gold in stock.
C07SL, 5 black
C09P, 5 gold; 4 gold in stock.
C09S, 5 gold; 2 gold in stock.
C36GS, 11 black & 1 gold; 1 gold in stock
C36GSE, 3 black
Boye Basic, 2 black (one went to David Boye)& 1 gold; 1 gold in stock
We also did several C07S with respective logos for the U.S.B.P (4 black, 2 gold), Seal Team 2 (14 black, 3 gold) and Seal Team 5 (19 black, 4 gold) and with Seal Team Tridents (7 black, 3 gold)
The above will give you an idea of how many we completed in the event you ever see one for sale. Or if you ever run across someone who has one and the lock mechanism failed, have them call us. We personnaly warranty each of these knive for the lifetime of the original owner against lock breakage or weakening. If it happens we will replace or refund. (Spyderco will not warranty them.)
The above items "in stock" are there because they have not been readily available to our dealers since 1996. If you are interested in owning one or all they are now available.
Since we are a distributor we do not sell retail. To purchase you can call Wright Knives at 1-800-400-1980 or have your favorite dealer call us. (We need to state that we do not knowingly sell to deep discounting dealers.) These knives are still at the early price levels.
Hopefully this will clear up, at least for the knives we produced, the story regarding Spyderco knives that are totally gold or black.
John
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John F Jensen
"Your Quality Distributor"
619-475-3633
[This message has been edited by JOHN F JENSEN (edited 11-19-2000).]
[This message has been edited by JOHN F JENSEN (edited 11-19-2000).]
[This message has been edited by JOHN F JENSEN (edited 11-19-2000).]
