Rat coating melted by...

B

brt

Joined
Nov 23, 2007
Messages
11
Hi,

I'm kinda disappointed with the coating used in Ontario Rat knives. I own TAK 1 and RAT3 , both are made of 1095 steel.


Two days ago, I was preparing meal. While cutting lemons I noticed that slices are dark.
At first, I thought that knife was simply dirty, so i wiped blade with paper towel, however to my surprise some part of coating was now on towel. :eek: It is quite shocking, i never thought that lemon juice could melt coating. What is worse, a big part coating was removed from knife and as you can predict blade wast fast was covered with little rusty spots

My second concern are healthy issues, coating may be toxic , and potentially hazard to humans.

In order to check ,whether problems with coating ware only to be found in my knives, i asked my friend to conduct similar tests. He put lemon slice on his TAK, and guess what... coating was melted too.


I hope you realize how big is the problem.
I am concerned with that situation.
:grumpy:

Thanks
brt

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Tak
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Rat3
 
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They can't be using the same coating than on the Rar-3. That one was a tough MF and took several remover application and sandpaper to be totally removed.

It's all or nothing with that coating :D
 
the lemon will atleast start the patina and that will help protect the blade,strip the rest of the coating and cut more lemons to help the patina along,but don't eat'em....phosphate coating can't be good for you..
 
That's a 1095 model RAT-3 with phosphate coating. My guess is it was not properly cleaned before coating. There have been several blades that have the powder coating (different process) that are also losing their coating and most of it can be attributed to piss-poor blade cleaning and treatment before the coating process.

Sorry about this brt, but as the gentleman said, there is nothing Mike and I can do about this. Ontario refuses to communicate with us on anything and just doesn't seem to give the first damn anymore. But they're still using our name, logo, likeness and common law marks...and not paying dime's worth of royalty. The bottom line is Ontario and every rep they have representing the RAT line are thieves - stealing from us every time they sell a RAT knife.
 
It's very strange that the rather weak acids in a lemon would remove the coating. That would make me think that there was something wrong in the mixture.

The fine gentlemen here at RAT Cutlery no longer have any dog in the fight over at Ontario, they are completely disconnected.

Your best bet would be to contact Ontario customer service and request a replacement or a recoating of your blades and then make sure not to hold your breath.

I would personally take off the scales and remove the coating completely and then allow a natural patina to develop, black is beautiful ya know.
After that, I would start saving my pennies for an RC3.
 
Rat 3 is first production - it was made before your separation with Ontario.


I don't think that problem with coating is single episode.
Try put ( on your own responsibility) lemon slice on your old 1095 Rat.
 
To me, my opinion is the phosphate coating is not design to last as long as powder coat,I have a 1st. production RAT3 1095(phosphate) & D2(powder coat) the rat3 shows wear but has not wiped off by cutting citruis fruits...really and truely to me the coating on the rat3 are weak compared to the RC3....I have a early model RAT7 the coating has wore down smooth in most spots and to the bare metal in others but never just wiped off,then I snagged another rat7 both 1095 later design sheath and NIB (got in trade earlier this year) and 1st time I hacked a few limbs ,less than 1/4" dia" the coating looks terrible.so I don't know what is up with that but to me it is a hard worker design to be in the field ,so not that big of an issue to me...
 
brt,

Not doubting when you bought it or when it was made but the sad part is Ontario will not even talk to us so I'm not sure how we can help you. Ontario made the knife, Ontario sold the knife, and Ontario is the one who issues the warranty and any repair on the knife. Email all of the following people at Ontario and maybe you will get a response. I wouldn't hold my breath that any of them will respond though since their customer service is a lot less than par

Sue Green: sgreen@ontarioknife.com
Nick Trbovich: nicktrb2@aol.com
Bob Breton: bbreton@ontarioknife.com
Diane Stanbro: diane@ontarioknife.com
 
R.A.T. said:
That's a 1095 model RAT-3 with phosphate coating. My guess is it was not properly cleaned before coating. There have been several blades that have the powder coating (different process) that are also losing their coating and most of it can be attributed to piss-poor blade cleaning and treatment before the coating process.

Sorry about this brt, but as the gentleman said, there is nothing Mike and I can do about this. Ontario refuses to communicate with us on anything and just doesn't seem to give the first damn anymore. But they're still using our name, logo, likeness and common law marks...and not paying dime's worth of royalty. The bottom line is Ontario and every rep they have representing the RAT line are thieves - stealing from us every time they sell a RAT knife.
Click to expand...

VERY true, unfortunately...:mad::(
 
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