Knife coating and heat treatment

E

elchris123

Joined
Apr 27, 2012
Messages
40
Hey, hows it going everyone . . . this is my first post, so if Im doing something wrong, just let me know.

I have a Cold Steel kukri Plus (sk-5 steel {1085})and I live in hawaii. Problem is rust and I do take very good care of my knives and there is not a single spot of rust on any of them. However, when trekking through the jungle because it is so wet and some of the plants here have fairly acidic sap and such, it inevitably rusts a very small amount and I end up having to remove this at the end of every time I use it. I have also heard a few stories of how moisture can get under the handle and start rusting the bare metal underneath. i dont like the sound of this. so The obvious solution is to put a coating of some sort on it. I am not doing a patina, that is for sure. After looking for quite a while on here at all the great ideas you guys have, Ive ruled out powdercoating, and type of paint, teflon, blueing, truck bedliner . . . etc. and came up with the only coating that really makes any sense in the world of hard use knives. Some sort of TiNi coating , and from what Ive read, TiAlN would be the best (correct me if Im wrong). . . . Plus the black is badass =]


My first question is: will a TiAlN coating ruin the heat treatment on the knife?
second: Cold Steel's Kukris are NOT differentially heat treated, right? So if I need a heat treatment, it would be as simple as sending into Buck knives for Paul Bos to do his thing, right?

I would appreiciate any information I can get on it. And Im not dead set on TiAlN, So if there really is a better option out there, let me know.
 
Welcome to BF.

I think your oil solution is probably your best bet. The alternatives sound too expensive for a knife in that price range. Have you considered a Busse KZ II?

Unklfranco
 
Wax. Wax, wax, wax.

Have you considered wax?

Have you priced what TiAln or TiN coating will cost v. the price of your CS?

add: how easy is it to resharpen it with the coating? In industrial applications, sharpening will require a recoat.
 
The San Mai III version will probably end up being cheaper and it will be just as stainless and with even better edge retention.
 
Thank you all for the feedback, I very much appreciate it.
I don't know anything about doing a wax coating. Honestly I had never even considered it or heard of it before, but I'm interested in it at least for now. I really would like to have a more permanent solution in the end though. What kind of wax do I use? and how do I apply it?

I know market value is really only about $200 brand new for one of these (and maybe Im just being a bit stubborn) But I'm quite attached to this knife and i love making projects out of things. Even if they don't financially make too much sense. I have emailed a few companies for quotes on the pricing, but they haven't replied yet. If the coating costs more than a few hundred dollars, i may just get it powdercoated. Its just something I want to do. The vision I have for the knife is a black coated blade, Brass Bolsters and pommel, black and grey Micarta grip with finger grooves and white spacers between them This handle will all be the same style as a Falcutta sword or similar to the Cold Steel Spartan.

I hope I'm not coming across as a jackass and just shooting down your advice, because I don't mean to come across that way, I'm just saying I know it will cost a bit and I am willing to pay for it, I just need to know if The TiAlN process ruins the blades heat treatment. I have googled it to death and cant find anything on it. Maybe I am typing the wrong questions on google, who knows? i am just hoping You guys would know more about the deposition process than I do.

This brings up a second question as well. Does powdercoating seem like a bad option to you guys? And will the baking temp of that affect the heat treatment either?
I look forward to hearing from you guys.
 
I almost forgot, the other option I ran across is something I have never heard of before called Black-T coating. They do coatings on guns and knives and claim it works wonderfully. Does anybody know anything about this?
 
Good quality car wax with carnauba is used to protect $10K, $50K, 100K, $1,000,000+ cars right? You think it can protect the steel of your knife?

Beeswax has been used to protect weapons and armor for thousands of years.

Old time duck hunters use Johnson's Paste Wax to protect those plain blue steel shotguns in the marsh without complaint.

Don't over think it.

OR, there's stuff that is spray-on and oven-baked which will permanently coat & protect your knives & guns. An easy to use one is Gun-Kote. They come in a pretty good selection of colors. Do a web search and see if that is something you might be interested in.
 
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