Plasti Dip

[MeDoctor]

I was in Harbor Freight today and picked up an aerosol can of Plasti Dip -- the stuff you can spray on tool handles and other items in multiple coats to prevent corrosion and/or provide a good gripping surface. I'm almost finished with a 5" cleaver I'm making for a friend (my first try at knifemaking), and I'm thinking I could spray a light coat of Pam on the blade edge and then apply several coats of Plasti Dip about 1" wide to make an edge guard. Seems like a good idea both for safe delivery of the knife and for use as a storage guard. Anyone tried such a thing? Does it work as well as I think it might?
TIA.

Shalom,
Mark

 

[Mike Hull]

I don't know about an edge guard, but for handle coatings it doesn't work for beans.
I won a knife at a show about 16 years ago. It had a drilled tang, and I guess was supposed to be a "tactical" knife, and the maker had dipped the tang in Plasti-Dip. It was real bad, and the coating was loose. I just cut the stuff off, and have never liked that makers products to this day.

For coatings, I would suggest truck bed coatings. They stick real good.
Dupli color makes it in a spray, and there is another company, Herculiner, that sells theirs in a one gallon can, for roll on application.
You can get either at Wal Mart, or many auto parts stores.
It comes in several colors also.

 

[crex]

The Plasti-Dip reacts with many products, one being WD40. It will get gummy and tacky and make you nuts. I imagine most petro. products will react with it much the same way. I'm not very fond of it you might say.

 

[MeDoctor]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Based on your responses I'll probably go ahead and try making the edge guard with it, but I won't be putting what's left over on the handles of some old pliers and Channel-Locks as I had planned to. I use WD-40 from time to time, and it's not unusual to have to wipe some of it off of my tools at the end of a job. If I decide to coat some of my tool handles I'll pick up the truck bed liner stuff.

Shalom,
Mark