- Joined
- Jul 3, 2012
- Messages
- 100
I bought a used BK16. The previous owner had removed the black coating from the blade and convexed it. When I received the knife I wanted to make it "mine". Here is what it looked like when I received it:
There were some marks on the blade where it looked like a dremel tool danced across it and there were lots of vertical lines that were there from the manufacture of the knife. I started sanding the blade with 800 grit sandpaper, then quickly dropped to 400, then 320, then 220. The steel is extremely hard and the blade didn't want to give any of it up! I sanded at 220 for a few hours, then worked back up to 800 grit to get a smooth, shiny finish:
Then I used nail polish from the dollar store to cover the edge and put random markings on the blade.
After that it got a bath in etching acid for an hour and 15 minutes. When it came out of the acid, it was thoroughly rinsed, wiped down with baking soda to neutralize any remaining acid on the blade, and dried off. Then I used 1000, 1200, and 2000 grit sandpaper to give it a nice mirror polish that reflected colors nicely. Once the blade surface was complete I sat down with the blade and my Lansky sharpener, and gave both sides a nice 20 degree edge. Here is the finished knife:
Here it is with a SanRenMu 710 folder that I gave the same treatment to.
And here it is with the SRM 710 and my coyote brown RAT 1 folder. These are my main EDC folders. I would have liked the BK16 to remain black and coyote brown to match the RAT, but since it was stripped already I did the next best thing.
There were some marks on the blade where it looked like a dremel tool danced across it and there were lots of vertical lines that were there from the manufacture of the knife. I started sanding the blade with 800 grit sandpaper, then quickly dropped to 400, then 320, then 220. The steel is extremely hard and the blade didn't want to give any of it up! I sanded at 220 for a few hours, then worked back up to 800 grit to get a smooth, shiny finish:
Then I used nail polish from the dollar store to cover the edge and put random markings on the blade.
After that it got a bath in etching acid for an hour and 15 minutes. When it came out of the acid, it was thoroughly rinsed, wiped down with baking soda to neutralize any remaining acid on the blade, and dried off. Then I used 1000, 1200, and 2000 grit sandpaper to give it a nice mirror polish that reflected colors nicely. Once the blade surface was complete I sat down with the blade and my Lansky sharpener, and gave both sides a nice 20 degree edge. Here is the finished knife:
Here it is with a SanRenMu 710 folder that I gave the same treatment to.
And here it is with the SRM 710 and my coyote brown RAT 1 folder. These are my main EDC folders. I would have liked the BK16 to remain black and coyote brown to match the RAT, but since it was stripped already I did the next best thing.
