dura coating for fixed blade knives

[urbancaveman]

I am new to the knife making arena. I have a couple of knife blanks and I was wanting to know what the pro's and con's would be to applying a duracoat to the blades. I was also wondering what would be the most reliable type of duracoat to use and if it would be possible to do this myself. I am aware that there are some different types that can be used and that some can be baked on. I am not sure if the baking process might interfere with the edge holding properties of the blade. In other words I am significantly ignorant on the issue and I would like to educated myself on the subject. Any help or experience would be greatly appreciated.

 

[yoda4561]

My favorite is Norrell Molyresin, it's a spray and bake phenolic+ moly coating. The baking temps for this, and for KG gunkote are well within the safe temperature range of ANY steel knife blade you are likely to encounter. Some powdercoating and ceramic coatings need very high temps, and aren't suitable for some steels.

Things you'll run into... Molyresin and Gunkote need an abrasive blasted (this means no glass beads) surface to adhere well, there don't seem to be any substitutions for this step, though acid etching may be a possibility. They also hide nothing when applied properly, Any machine marks rougher than 220 grit sanding belt lines will show through the coating.

Lauer Duracoat is basically a repurposed industrial epoxy type finish, goes on thicker and doesn't have the lubricating properties of Molyresin or Gunkote, but it's less sensitive to surface preperation and hides surface defects better.

Supposedly the #1 surface for any of these coatings is a bead or abrasive blast, followed by a zinc parkerizing (easy to do and not expensive), then coating. I have both zinc and manganese parkerizing and haven't been too impressed by the manganese as a coating base. I still haven't given the zinc solution a shot, but it's what the pro refinishers have had the best luck with.