Factory coating on blades. Why remove?

B

Billu

Joined
Mar 2, 2014
Messages
7
I was curious as to why lots of you guys here are so eager to remove the factory coating on the BK blades? Seems that the additional rustproffing of a non stainless blade would be desirable. I am pretty new to beckers. Buying several the past few months as a result of me reading this forum. I now own a Bk11, BK2, BK 16, BK 7 and a BK 9. I will be making some custom wood handles soon, but was planning on keeping the factory coated blades.
 
Guy who love their toys also love to tamper with and otherwise modify them. That is pretty much it. Some guys like the look of a naked blade. I have peeled some of mine too. But I think its mostly done just for the fun of it.
 
Aesthetics I presume.

Plus, 1095 is fairly simple to maintain. Keep it lightly oiled while stored and wipe it off after it gets wet. If it gets neglected that is when problems arise.
 
A few possible reasons why some folks might strip a knife

-The coating has worn off and looks ugly
-the coating is ugly from the factory
-naked steel or a patina looks cool
-rough coatings can be a source of friction making cuts more difficult
-1095cv is not very prone to rusting so why not take the coating off
-so their knife will strike a fire steel
-so you don't have one naked spot after making a mod that stand out from the rest of the knife. strip the coating so it's all the same.
-people like to customize. Off the shelf stuff is boring.
-they're bored
-a project to do with someone you care about
-the voices in their head told them too


I neglect the crap out of my BK9 and I have no issues after stripping.
 
Bigghoss pretty much gave every reason out there.

My 14 is stripped, because I use it for food as well as just cutting up wood and whatnot. The old coating started flaking and I didn't want the paint in my food so I stripped it.
My 16, I stripped because I just thought it looked more bushcrafty and less tactical without the coating. I did keep the coating underneath the scales.
My 24 is already uncoated from the factory: yey!
My 5 I bought second hand and was stripped already. I would have done the same for that slicer, mostly because I use it a lot for food.
My 9 still has the coating. Until now, that's the only one. It doesn't stick that bad in wood, it's low maintenance, so I just keep it until it wears down a lot.

So, it depends :)
 
I think the main reason is: "because we can".

We can etch, we can strip, we can force a patina.

And this way we take "ownership" of the knife.

Maybe we can live with it in their original factory state...

... but only for a while, a short one while :)
 
I leave the coating on my knives it's there for a reason I guess, plus I'm too lazy too strip it and it will wear away in time lol!!
 
I removed the paint on my BK-7 because it was like sandpaper and made the knife suck at cutting anything as it would stick and scrape whatever I was cutting. The stuff on mine was line truck bed liner. That is why I took mine off. A knife is suppose to slice and if it has a sandpaper coating it doesn't do that well.
 
i stripped my 11 to use for food prep. i kinda want to strip my usmc kabar 'cuz the worn spots look shiny and awesome. but the wear also adds a badassness look to the coating. and i don't eat with it.
 
Dexwithers said:
What do knives and women have in common?



I prefer both Naked.
Click to expand...

^This!!!!


Also, I have some Beckers with the coating still intact, but I left them coated because I have customs kydex sheaths for them. The sheaths were fitted to Beckers with the coating, so removing it would create some wiggle room, which on a knife sheath, is...extremely irritating to me.
 
I strip only my camp knives...the ones I use for food, for example. Big choppers I couldnt care less about.
 
Actually, I really liked the old coating on my 14 when I first got it. I photo'd very well and looked damn good. I removed it because I was in a "gotta mod it-mode." Looking back I should have bought two with the old coating and left one on. I'm not a fan of the new coating and laser etch on the newer 14s. Here's what my 14 looked like the day I got it.



I still love it dearly. It's beat up now, stripped with a nice naturally occurring patina, but wish I could get my hands on another 14 roll stamped with the old coating. Oh well.
 
I simply dispense with the hassle of "stripping" a knife and just buy the plain version, as in a BK-24; besides, I'd rather be fishing then wasting time stripping a knife and polluting my immediate environment with chemicals.:)
 
Because I can.

Actually, my 16 (used) and 24 came that way. I only did the 7 to match.
The 11 and 15 I did because they'll be primarily for food prep.
 
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