Giving a favorite outdoor blade some character

Runsalone

Runsalone

Joined
Oct 22, 2003
Messages
1,150
Decided to spiffy up my BK11. Great little knife for the outdoors, but could use a little personalization. Im not a big fan of black coatings, as they wear so ugly, when they get used especially for wood work. Hence the forced patina.

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Id do lots more to this knife but it would compromise the sheath. How many of us carry knives like this as our main blade I wonder? Probably a little too small. Anyway just sharing some pics of one of my favorites for camp chores. What have you guys done to your knives? Seems I tend to try to make mine look old.
 
Nice forced patina! Glad to see you went with leather for the wrap too.:thumbup:
 
that came out great...:thumbup: those BK-11's are cool little knives, i've had for awhile...
 
Looks good. I often use the Green River blades which are excellent and cheap carbon blades. I wrap them with leather as a rule instead of making grips for them. Makes a hell of a knife for ten bucks. I sometimes cut leather scales and stick a little carpet tape on the handle then a couple Chicago scwres.
 
Awesome job bro..it got sort of a patch knife look to it now....Looks like you reground the tip a bit there as well?? I'm glad you've been hanging around.. you do some great stuff...
 
That's a pretty good patina, I don't really like the patina design, where people draw pics and patinas out that way.

It's looks way more rugged now.
 
Runsalone said:
How many of us carry knives like this as our main blade I wonder? Probably a little too small.
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Naw, not too small. I EDC mine quite often and find it very handy. It cuts very well and if I really need something bigger, it would have to be a lot bigger, like a 9" camp knife or something.

In my opinion, those Becker Neckers are one of the very best deals around.
 
Nice job! Looks much better that way.:thumbup:
 
Runsalone said:
What have you guys done to your knives? Seems I tend to try to make mine look old.
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Here is a little restoration I did on a Busse Combat Meant Street I was lucky enough to pic up. When she came to me she had a lot of black coating wear and some rust around the wear areas. Unfortunately it left pits but I gave it a hand rubbed finish and cleaned it up reall nice. Mind kinda looks rustic too but without any kind of patina job... just my usual hand rub finish. I repofiled the edge a little and got her back to razor sharp and efficient cutting power.

Word to the wise... strip your coatings... apparently the blade CAN rust underneath the coating... I can keep a blade far cleaner and rust free without the coating.

How she came to me
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After I stripped off her dirty clothes and degreased the handles... see the rust where there was actual coating before?
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Cleaned her up and gave her a hand rubbed satin finish on the blade up to 1500 grit and polished the rivets. You can see the pitting scars where the coating wear boarder used to be... damn shame. But not deep.
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Gave her a slick reprofile and laid the edge down just a bit.
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Here she is about to bite into my leg
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And the proof is in the hair and skin flakes LOL.
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As far as stripping the coating I use a paint stripper that you can find at home depot. It's KS-3 from Kleen Strip. It's in a copper colored can and you can buy it by the pint or gallon I think. Some guys submerge the knife in it... I find it works just as well if you slather it on with a sponge brush and let it sit for 20 minutes. Different coats will act differently but the coating on my Busses at least (Which is some VERY durable stuff) crinckled up and came right off in under 20 minutes... I didn't even have to scarpe it... it just peeled right off the blade. And it won't hurt micarta... not sure about G-10 though... but I'm sure that's ok too. I let some drip in a simple wal-mart plastic bowl and it didn't seem to eat through that. It will degrease micarta though and take it back to a near factory look. So if you have a nice micarta handle that has been darkened by sweat and blood and stuff and you like the way it looks... tape up the handle... cause it will come out bone dry and factory new after getting this stuff on it.
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As for patina... lots of guys use different things... but from what I understand the most important thing is that it have a high acid content. Vinegar, mustard, lemon juice work... some other guys might know of something that's more agressive. And I only think acid discoloration works on carbon steel blades... the more stainless the steel is... the less effect acid will have on it.
 
RescueRiley said:
Awesome job bro..it got sort of a patch knife look to it now....Looks like you reground the tip a bit there as well?? I'm glad you've been hanging around.. you do some great stuff...
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Yeah I reground the tip pretty soon after I first got it. Im not a big fan of "humps" on knives. Ive been around BF for a while but Im real sporadic with posting. Its an on again off again love hate thing:D

Brad "the butcher";6471766 said:
What was the knife soaking in as part of the process. And how did you strip the coating?
thanks.
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I bring white vinigar to the boiling point, remove from heat and submerge the knife. The coating I removed very lightly with a belt sander and by hand with wet/dry paper going up through 2000 grit. Ill definitly be trying some sort of chemical means if I ever do that again. Lots of work!!

]=Steel-Junky;6471797]As far as stripping the coating I use a paint stripper that you can find at home depot. It's KS-3 from Kleen Strip. It's in a copper colored can and you can buy it by the pint or gallon I think. Some guys submerge the knife in it... I find it works just as well if you slather it on with a sponge brush and let it sit for 20 minutes. Different coats will act differently but the coating on my Busses at least (Which is some VERY durable stuff) crinckled up and came right off in under 20 minutes... I didn't even have to scarpe it... it just peeled right off the blade. And it won't hurt micarta... not sure about G-10 though... but I'm sure that's ok too. I let some drip in a simple wal-mart plastic bowl and it didn't seem to eat through that. It will degrease micarta though and take it back to a near factory look. So if you have a nice micarta handle that has been darkened by sweat and blood and stuff and you like the way it looks... tape up the handle... cause it will come out bone dry and factory new after getting this stuff on it.
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Thanks for that! I really was wishing for a better way to get the coating off, and more evenly, Will give this a try! Ive got a RAT-3 that ive been thinking about screwing around with.
 
well I just couldnt help myself. That leather didnt look right and that finger gaurd was driving me bonkers!:p Course I had to mod the sheath a little.;)

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Much nicer to carve with now!!:thumbup:
 
Runsalone said:
Thanks for that! I really was wishing for a better way to get the coating off, and more evenly, Will give this a try! Ive got a RAT-3 that ive been thinking about screwing around with.
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Don't the RATs have some kind of powder coat? Almost like parkerizing on them? The Stripper only works on paint type coatings... anything blued or parkerized will have to be sanded and then polished.
 
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