I'm doing a little survey, please help me out.

I prefer satin finish for my blades. It looks good and has better corrosion resistance compared to bead blast. Blade coatings are second, mainly for corrosion resistance. The salt air where I work isn't the best on an EDC.

I'd list mirror finish at a distant third over mirror finish close behind it. Mirror finishes don't really look that good to me, and get messed up easy, but are better for corrosion resistance. Bead blast looks a little better and are easier to fix, but the corrosion resistance sucks. I have one bead blasted blade in ATS-34 that will rust in about 3 days of EDC duty even if I clean it up and wipe it with tuff-cloth... it still looks better after cleaning up than a mirror polished blade does though... so bead blast gets the 3rd place spot.
 
I like them all!! I think every style has it's place.
 
I like stone washed, black ti, satin finishes on the folders.
Coated blades will loose their finish with use. It gives them character to my thinking.

I was never enamored with high polished blades until I got the Bagwell Hells Belle that way. Asked Bill why he did them so mirrored and his reply was that [ a mirror finished blade on a non stain resistant steel [ he uses 5160 ] will not rust as fast as other finishes due to the high polished steel ].

I like the Belle in high polish, but it is the only one I own that way.

Brownie
 
Whatever this tiger stripe is on my Strider is just dandy...some marks on the knife from the tightly fitting Kydex but I don't care since it's a great knife.

Will Strider redo the tiger stripe if I sent it back to them? Just thought I'd have it redone a while from now to bring back the badass look :cool:
 
My favorite finish is satin, just because of the way it looks. I don't care for coatings, but I have seen some knives with DiamondBlack coated blades that I like a lot.

Another finish I am starting to really like are blades that are etched to give them that frontier look, like the one in my avatar.
 
Satin. It makes the blade really look like metal and it is easy to maintain. On another note, there is a bunch of B.S. going on around the knife community that a blade needs a black coating or subdued finish for covert military personnel. This is not true. I was an Army Ranger for 8 years and many guys carried Randalls and Al Mars with a nice bright finish. I believe that Mercworks only make their blades with a satin finish too. I would leave the blade finish up to the owner.;)
 
1. Satin for fore mentioned reasons. However on non-stainless, I am starting to go for the coated to inhibit rust, I just have to maintain the edge.
 
1-Hand Satin
2-Machine Satin
3-Stonewash
4-(MT) Tan Coating
5-(MT) Green Coating
6-Black Coating
 
Satin on stainless because I like the look and I don't have to worry about it getting scratched up looking.

Black on tool steel because I'm bad about keeping them well protected and this way only the edges get rusty.
 
Originally posted by Gollnick

As far as anyone has ever been able to explain to me, the only reason for bead blasted finishes is to hide the manufacturer's mistakes.
Click to expand...

It cuts a lot of workers and time out of the production process. Nobody has to clean the brown oxidation off the steel when it comes from the heat treat. No workers to train, all automated. Cuts way down on q.c. scrap.
You make more knives and you make them faster.

Drew
 
Probably coated. I think it is called Titanium Nitride. Whatever Kershaw uses on the Blackout model. It is'nt very thick but it is very durable.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top