Pictures of plated INFI?

uyotg

uyotg

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Anybody remember this? Bronze meets INFI

valleytinworks has been inactive since 2009 and hasn't responded to an e-mail I sent. I think the idea of electroplated INFI would be awesome. Brass, bronze, gold, copper knives, and more--lots of creative possibility. Unfortunately the pictures in that thread have all been taken down now. Does anyone have any other pictures of plated INFI or has anyone tried to plate their own INFI and can share the experience?
 
I imagine that infi costs more than brass, bronze, or copper...which really makes it more precious of a metal. I guess I can see gold or platinum for commemorative purposes on display, but then why have infi under the plating as opposed to a cheaper steal...infi is about performance. Are ya thinking corrosion prevention, aesthetics, or ? Chrome or Ni would probably come off under heavy use...I imagine. Still, I wish I could see pics.
 
I've been wondering about him lately, I do know he got in trouble a few times for spamming his tin business a little too much, I think he left soon thereafter.

Brass, bronze, and copper would be pretty nifty on a Busse, not real functional, but it would look cool and the patina possibilities are interesting. :)
 
I think it would be cool to have a plating with some lubricity that still wiped clean easily, like that stuff they are putting in fancy AR uppers now.
 
The plating will wear off eventually, but so does the coating Busse puts on anyway. It's just another finish to consider. Imagine the cool look of satin or double cut, but colored--that would be pretty awesome, yeah? Just like any other piece of INFI, it could be a collector's item and the finish could be preserved, or it could be used. When I first my first double cut INFI, I was in awe of the texture of the steel, but couldn't help but wonder what it would look like with a different color.

I actually bought a small can of metallic copper gun coat from KG Coating to paint my RMD with, but it needs some very specific bead-blasting pretreatment, which I don't have the means to do. If I ever score a spare double cut blade, I might try it out though.

In general, I hear gun coating isn't so durable, but I'm sure there are some pretty good brands out there. Like any coating, of course it will wear off with use.
 
We have done a few special lnives for Hog inductions that we coated gold. But it was just a gold colored coating not a plating like you are talking.

Garth
 
INFI doesn't stain well IME.

I've tried to patina INFI with liquids that work well on carbon steels like 1095 and A2. I used phosphoric acid and boiling vinegar. Neither of them did much to the INFI. The phosphoric acid did eventually leave a little staining, but *very* little and not very consistently.

I suppose one could ask a local metal guru about trying to patina or plate INFI. However, as noted, the temps involved (particularly in plating) may well be high enough to mess with the temper of the steel.

That said, mounting some hard-chrome plated fittings to a satin bladed knife could look cool, especially if the fittings were engraved before plating. Figure the handle made of ebony wood, walnut burl, or carbon fibre for a hi-tech look. Hmmm...... I seem to see a pretty different-looking SFNO coming to mind that owes a lot to Brother Will York's reworked Basic 5. :D
 
Plating would not affect the temper at all, I plate gun parts on occasion. When plating steel you have to plate first with a base coat of copper then with what ever metal you want on top. It works pretty well on small parts in guns, for a knife it just wouldn't last all that long compared to the expense of doing it. Its a pain in the butt to do too, much easier working on jewelry. Plating temps run between 150 and 180 degrees for most things, blueing tanks run around 280, I think blued would be a more interesting finish. A nice dark colt blue would really look good.
 
Blued NMSFNO

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Nice, Dave! How'd you do that? I thought I read somewhere that bluing and Parkerizing wouldn't work on INFI, unless that NMSFNO has a competition finish.
 
The NMSFNO was stripped then I used Burchwood Casey cold blue.
weird part was that the spine where the scales are would not take ?
 
He had some talent, but was oddly attracted to his Hell Razors.

Some of those vent hoods and such he made - wow.
 
David Brown said:
The NMSFNO was stripped then I used Burchwood Casey cold blue.
weird part was that the spine where the scales are would not take ?
Click to expand...

I think the Nuclear meltdown treatment (polishing) made it too smooth a finish for it to penetrate/soak in.:thumbup:
 
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