Refininshing the Brend?

alphamaniv

alphamaniv

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Hello All,
I am still loving my Brend and after much lamenting and nashing of teeth I am finally getting the hang of sharpening the thing. I use the hang over method suggested by Justin and a few others, along with a protractor to get the angle right. Anyway, speaking of loving it (no, not like that your pervs) I have thrown the finish off of many many places. I was thinking about sending it to BodyKote for a new finish. I know some people have had a chrome type finish put on their knives with a top coat of Boron carbide. I was wondering if anyone here has done such a thing or if anything else would be recomended. Also has anyone had any work done by them? I was wondering about cost. Thanks for any info.
 
Alpha...glad you are enjoying your Brend Hatchet and your updates to the forum are MOST informative for all of us, so keep coming back.

The newsflash on coating as I see it is the following...there isn't one single coating that will withstand the rigors of throwing over the long term. The abrasive nature of pentrating target wood over and over again at high impact is like using a slow moving, worn 50 grit belt on the finish.

On our products, we left epoxy powder coats due to the chipping/flaking response from high impact and went to a phosphate finish, i.e. parkerizing...and now a thin poly texcoat.

For us, the thinner coatings, which are only a few microns thick, such as Boron Carbide or Tungsten DLC will indeed wear, but endure the flaking/chipping response better than the thicker ones.

Believe it or not, Oliver North owned a company that made Boron Carbide coated gun barrells for BIG guns. We spoke about it for quite a while. They used a 3M spray lubricant over the coating to slicken the barrell for the projectile and increase the life of the Boron Carbide.

BodyCote arguably makes the best coatings in our biz, but as far as I can tell, it will not outlast more economical coatings on abrasion and wear resistance (and here's the qualifier..."ON A TOMAHAWK") in direct relationship to the price difference. There is a reason why the axe people, if they coat anything at all, use water based paint. It's because they've been down this road and know that EVERYTHNG wears, so why not just use an economical coating.

Now, we don't use paint and use a texcoat because a higher level of performance is expected from our products, at their price point. Our new texcoat offers superior value for its cost to us.

If you had to choose the "best", go BodyCote, but it's not my belief that you will gain a coating that will last significantly longer than a phosphate or thin polycoat, once again, "ON A TOMAHAWK". ;)


Hope this helps...
 
Alpha must be doing a lot of tossing! For refinishing a heavily used Brend would a simple cold blue solution (from Brownells) and plenty of elbow grease with superfine fine steel wool work? I'm thinking you would get a nice shiny pale blue that could easily be touched up by another dunking in the bluing solution.

Doh! Edited for spelling.
 
I'm not sure how informative I am, but I LOVE to run my mouth(fingers in this case):rolleyes: A LOT of throwing doesn't even come close. Between my son and I we throw it several hundred tosses a week. That is not an exageration either! You think that we would be better at it but alas, we still are shamefully bad at it. I have noticed though, if I relax and just toss it, it will stick most times, but when I overthink it, I usuall miss the whole target.:eek: We are still throwing at that 2 by 10, and I think that it would be easier to "stick it" in a tree. (no laughing please:rolleyes: ) My mind is really in the gutter tonight. I am currenly looking for a disc of trunk to throw at, and will have one soon. As far as the coating, I guess that I will just not worry about it. I clean the dirt and stuff off each time after I throw, and I put a light coat of oil on it too, so it should be fine. I am off to work my 48 hour shift tomorrow so I won't be back 'til Thurs. Maybe I can get some pics up this weekend of my poor battered, but loved hatchet.
 
Rev

The cold blueing is a good option. It is something that will give your Brend some protection from the elements as well as a nice look. It is also something that just about anyone can do. I have done several pieces with the cold blue and they come out very nice most of the time. They get decent wear resitance and are easily touched up. If you have the time and the desire you can polish your brend to a mirror finish and then blue it for a really different look.
 
Hmmmmm.. I have some cold blue solution left from a gun clean up. I might have to give the mirror polish and blue a try. Or maybe, just the mirror polish. Any Ideas on how well the bare naked metal would hold up?? I know that when I'm naked I ....nevermind
 
The mirror polish gives the hawk a great look. However if you plan to continue to throw the hawk it will give you some problems. It will scratch easily for one and it will rust fairly easily. That is if it isn't taken care of. As long as you wipe it down after throwning with a light coat of oil you should be good.
 
Thanks for the info. The blueing idea has me thinking. Does anyone have experience with the bake on finish from Brownells?
 
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