Recon 1 Tuff-ex coating.

K

Killtation

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Apr 3, 2013
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So i recently picked up a Recon 1 full size and a Recon 1 Mini.

The mini is my EDC blade. I've been carrying it for about 2 weeks now and the coating is showing very heavy wear. It looks good to me but i want that stonewashed finish underneath to show it's full glory.

Does anybody know of the best way to strip this type of coating (Cold Steels "Tuff-Ex" AKA "Glorified Teflon") without heavy abrasives that would scratch up the blade/lock bar? I've got some mineral spirits lying around somewhere but i'm not sure if soaking it in that would work.. what do you guys think?

-Church
 
For heavier coating that is necessary but this is a very weak coating. If it's soaked in a substance such as acetone for a while first it can be taken off easier and with less chance of scratching up the finish under the coating.

That's all i know, not sure what to soak it in first, though. I don't have any acetone and i don't want to waste my can of Mineral Spirits if that won't work. If i need to pick up some paint thinner or something of that sort I can. I'm just looking for someone who knows exactly what to use. Perhaps i should have posted in the Cold Steel subforum but i suppose this could lead to more views and therefore more answers and hopefully a definitive one.
 
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Citri-strip works really well and isn't as toxic smelling as the others. Coat the blade and let it sit for a while and it should come off easily.

Also, don't put posts in the wrong forum just to get views, we have dedicated areas for a reason. This should be in the maintenance/tinkering forum since it deals with modifications.
 
I have never heard of that but i'll see if my local Home Depot carries it.

I didn't intentionally post in the wrong forum, it was simply an afterthought. Technically speaking, however, this is the "general" forum. This could apply here, the Cold Steel subforum, the maintenance forum, etc. There are many threads here about fixed blades and traditionals and i never see anybody complaining about that. Just saying.

EDIT: Home Depot does have it but after doing some reading I found that it does not strip this type of coating well and still requires a lot of sanding (which is what i'm trying to avoid). I simply want to maintain the beautiful stonewashed finish underneath. I'm sure you guys can understand that.

Thanks for the suggestion, any further help would be greatly appreciated.
 
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There are several YouTube videos.

Some people have used rustoleum aircraft remover finish stripper with good results. You have to let it sit for a while and scrape while it's still wet.

AU_AircraftRemover_18oz_L.jpg
 
There is about a million vids on how to do this. Get a spray on paint remover. I did it with an Esee 5 and it worked great. Post up some pics after you do it. Those blades should look great!
 
So, with nothing to lose but a can of Mineral Spirits I decided to give it a try. About an hour soak ( which did not work well) and 20 minutes of careful work with a razor later this is the results. I skipped the clip because i like how it looks. The full sized Recon is in perfect condition so i'm going to keep it that way but this is how my Mini looks now. There's a somewhat mirror polish while maintaining a beautiful dark grey stonewash.

Please excuse the late response and my dirty hands in the photos. Been working on the truck all day.




 
In my opinion it's way better than the black coating. It even makes it look more high value. The dark grey is awesome and where the grind meets the flats the lines are pronounced. I would definitely recommend doing it.... BUT get a better substance to strip the parts. Mineral spirits barely did anything. You could probably do it with only something like dish soap just for a bit of lubrication between the steel and the razor since the steel of the blade is way harder than the steel of the throwaway razor. I didn't detect any scratches on the blade and at some spots i had to do some decently hard scraping. Be careful with the rocker/lock bar, though. I did manage to scratch that in a couple small spots. You can't see them without disassembling the knife but it's obviously not a very hard steel.
 
Looks great!

I'm not surprised it came off with the mineral spirits and a razor... The stuff is basically glorified latex house paint. (It sucks)

 
Oh yeah, it sucks pretty bad. I'm surprised yours has so much wear on the blade and not much on the pocket clip. I'd suggest doing the same and stripping it. I don't mind the cheap ass coating. For 30 bucks you get CS Aus8-A, 1/8 inch slabs of great textured G10, and a tri-ad lock. Can't beat it.

New out of the box is has crazy grip but after 4-5 days of carry the G10 has become smoother on mine. Still great texture but not the insanely good texture it was. Has yours done the same?
 
Oh the clip is plenty worn now, the blade is even worse off as well. That's a pretty old picture in the scheme of things.

I am going to strip it. I've just been waiting for most of the coating to wear off through use. I think I'm pretty much there now.

The G10 on mine hasn't worn much to speak of. It HAS smoothed out a bit, but not much. Still plenty aggressive on the hand, and on the pockets. You say yours smoothed out in 4 - 5 days?! That's fast! I've been thinking about knocking mine down a little just behind the clip to save my pockets!
 
I did my recon by scraping it all off. Used a screwdriver and made a burr with a grinder at right angles to the screwdriver blade, and used the burr as a scraper. When it wore out I whipped up a new one with a quick pass on the grinder. Screwdriver is lower RC than the blade steel, so no scratches, and it pulls that coating right off. No pics, but they definitely look better without the coating.

I have the 4" model, might have to pic up the next size down - looks very handy.
 
Not scraping my large size recon until i have to.

Sandpaper under the clip, it helps immensely. And yes, mine's almost smooth now. Medium grip. It's a bit odd.
 
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