Phosphate Coating a Kabar?

[Samus_aran115]

I've been fooling around with a friend's OKC 3S Marine Corps Bayonet, which has a very nice phosphate coating, which (more or less), cannot possibly rub off, no matter what I do with it. So my thoughts turned to my humble Kabar, the simple, no frills origins of the OKC 3S, and a relic of the past the Marine Corps hold in great esteem. While I do like the look of a totally wrecked blade, destroyed, salt-water eaten sheath and dirty, squished handguard, I could do with a bit more finish

I understand Kabar continues to make the USMC to relatively classic specifications for historical reasons, and as a cost saving measure (I can't think of too many other sub-60$ 11 inch bowies). I'm not really insinuating that Kabar should phosphate coat all their blades, but I'm curious as to how much it would cost for them to make a run of them. Is phosphate coating expensive? Does it require complicated machinery? Am I missing something, and do they make phosphate coated knives?

And finally, how much would you imagine it would cost to phosphate coat my own kabar, if at all? I'm planning on totally doing a re-profile, grinding off the second bevel, and sharpening the swedge, so a phosphate coating would be the icing on the cake.

 

[tiguy7]

Phosphate coating is one of the cheapest "protective" coatings around. It is an artificial corrosion coating that imitates bluing but consists of Iron Phosphate rather than Iron Nitrate. It is a great undercoat for paint because it passivates the Iron surface, but it is a poor stand alone protective coating because it is soft and has little wear or corrosion resistance. The coating is not particularly attractive because of its gray/green low gloss appearance. I would much prefer a PVD (Particle Vapor Deposition) Coating such as TiAlN (Titanium Aluminum Nitride), which has an HRC (Hardness Rockwell C) of 92 and sports a high gloss charcoal finish to complement its superior wear resistance.