How to strip the black powder coat?

C

campandtravel

Joined
Mar 16, 2019
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What's the best/easiest way to strip that black powder coat on a blade? I think powder coat is the right term, I mean the blackening on a lot of knives?

Would the same method work for knives that are other than black like some of the orange or high-vis coatings?
 
If it is powder coat there are a variety of chemical strippers commonly available to remove it. Even oven cleaner can work. A little Google work will provide several chemical options.

If it's something tougher than powder coat, and chemical stripping doesn't work, then sanding might be your only option.

And if you do use any chemicals you're going to need to take the knife apart so that the chemicals don't affect the handle.
 
You can bead blast it or you can soak it in acetone, or as mentioned oven cleaner will work as well as paint stripper.
 
Ha! Uncanny timing on this. I was just looking at my Ontario SP10 last night and thinking how cool it would look with a nekkid blade and guard, and I had planned to do some searching here today on this very subject. 👍
 
G. Scott H. said:
Ha! Uncanny timing on this. I was just looking at my Ontario SP10 last night and thinking how cool it would look with a nekkid blade and guard, and I had planned to do some searching here today on this very subject. 👍
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Let me know how it works out for you?
 
campandtravel said:
What does ontario use on its USAF survival knife for example?

What does ESEE use on its blades?
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I believe the Ontario finish is zinc phosphate.

As for ESEE, I know that they have used powder coating in the past, but there was also talk of them switching to black nitride, which is considerably tougher than powder coat. But I don't know if they made the switch, or if they are using black nitride on just some of their knives (or none of them). I don't own any ESEE knives, but I would assume the company would state what the blade coating is for any given knife of theirs in the product description.
 
I've never stripped a blade before but I thought I would mention this.

To the OP, two other terms you might want to look up are *cerakote* and *dlc or diamond like coating*. Two common ways to "blacken"/protect a blade again corrosion.
 
I’m not sure what finish you have on your blade but i just took a Kizer with their”titanium blackened“ finish off with just elbow grease and 320 sandpaper. Took awhile but I didn’t want to start off too aggressive.
 
Doublek79 said:
I’m not sure what finish you have on your blade
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I was actually looking at buying a blade but wanted to know I could remove the coat first.

Now I think there are so many types of coats it's not worth learning about so I'll just wait until I find something I like.
Doublek79 said:
i just took a Kizer with their”titanium blackened“ finish off with just elbow grease and 320 sandpaper.
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Interesting. Does the blade look scratched up? That could be a good look I guess.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
Interesting- People who have shiny blades want them dull or black. People who have black blades want them dull or shiny.
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I'm interested in stripping the coating so that I could send them for DLC. Anyone know what coating Microtech uses on their black non-DLC coated blades? Im comfortable blasting the clips, definitely not the blades
 
campandtravel said:
' I was actually looking at buying a blade but wanted to know I could remove the coat first.

Now I think there are so many types of coats it's not worth learning about so I'll just wait until I find something I like.

Interesting. Does the blade look scratched up? That could be a good look I guess.
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Not too bad but they are there. I haven’t progressed all the way thru the grits yet. I tried some micro mesh pads after the 320 but it didn’t seem to touch it so i might get some wet/dry 800,1000,2000 and try that.
https://imgur.com/a/xSx2Wft
 
G. Scott H. said:
Ha! Uncanny timing on this. I was just looking at my Ontario SP10 last night and thinking how cool it would look with a nekkid blade and guard, and I had planned to do some searching here today on this very subject. 👍
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Thinking of that on SP-1, and wanting an SP-10. How do you like the knife so far?
 
Hashishiin said:
Thinking of that on SP-1, and wanting an SP-10. How do you like the knife so far?
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It's great. It's a large knife with a good bit of blade presence (balance point ~1.5" in front of guard). The handle is sort of square, but it's still comfy. The edge on mine was about 25* per side when new, so I took it down to 20* per side on my Edge Pro so I could do a 25* micro bevel on my Lansky Master's Edge. Now I can just do a few swipes on the Lansky as needed and it brings the blade back to shaving sharp.
 
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