Galvanized Blades

[ekaagan]

How come no one galvanizes their blades?
I know that most steel can be galvanized, but is blade steel, ATS-34 for example, a good candidate or is there some reason this is NOT done, say high heat? Would this be an excellent alternative to coating them with an expensive, albeit stylish, protectant.

EK

 

[C L Wilkins]

The galvanizing process is basically molten zinc at 850 degrees F. This temperature is pretty well controlled. At about 15 degrees below that, the zinc starts to solidify. Ten degrees or so above, it starts to pop and create a safety hazard for the workers at the galvanizing facility. This temperature being what it is, would hurt the temper on most all steels.

The primary reason for galvanization is to provide a protective coating to a steel. The zinc becomes "sacrificial" and will eventually wear off. In other words, it will not last forever on the material. Zinc is also very soft as well.

Galvanizing a stainless steel is not something that is practiced in industry to my knowledge.

I suppose the closest thing we see is nickel plating on some firearms but after a few years, we all know what that looks like.

One other method that has been tried is chrome plating on some of the "cheap" knives or swords. This looks worse than nickel plating.

CLWilkins