removing Benchmade's BK1 finish from blade?

S

snausage

Joined
Aug 10, 2008
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I have a Benchmade Nimravus and I was just thinking about how cool the D2 blade would look if it was polished instead of black.

Any thoughts/suggestions are appreciated

I know this will void the warranty
 
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Maybe they are assuming you will use power tools to polish the blade? Otherwise, they have one of the worst warranties I have ever seen.
 
um... i think the main warranty-voiding action would be removing the top-secret proprietary BK1 coating.. any suggestions on removing it??
 
I think it's pretty standard that removing a coating violates warranty. Polishing a matte/blasted surface, maybe not, but if it's an active coating, I'd assume so.

That being said, try a progression of wet-dry sandpaper from like 100 to 2500.
 
What type of coating is it? most baked on coatings will come off effortlessly with a chemical stripper.

"top-secret proprietary BK1 coating" is Marketing BS for "Cheaper to paint the knife than finish it" Just removing the coating cannot damage the knife, so either they have created the world's worst warranty, or you have been fed misinformation.
 
Lucky Bob said:
I think it's pretty standard that removing a coating violates warranty. Polishing a matte/blasted surface, maybe not, but if it's an active coating, I'd assume so.
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What is "active coating?"

Removing a coating cannot void the warranty, because the stuff gets worn off through use anyways. It is only there for cosmetic reasons, and in some cases to prevent rust.
 
snausage said:
benchmade's own secret formula ... i don't know if it's baked, boiled or fried
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unless it is an electronic stealth cloaking shield that makes the knife invisible with advanced nanotechnology, it is nothing special, and should not effect the warranty.

Polishing the knife using power tools, on the other hand, will void just about any warranty.
 
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well, i went ahead and voided my warranty.. it took me about 20 minutes with one of those yellow sponges with the green abrasive pad attached on the back.. the benchmade logo is still visible
 
snausage said:
2857817280_6849da246f.jpg


well, i went ahead and voided my warranty.. it took me about 20 minutes with one of those yellow sponges with the green abrasive pad attached on the back.. the benchmade logo is still visible
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No $hit?! :eek:. That's all it took to get the stuff off?
 
Stonewash it in a tumbler with ceramic media.

Here's what I did to my Buck Strider, imho I like the finish better than the crappy "burned" black phosphate finish it had from the factory:

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So, hang on a sec. If I want to do that to my D2 Cabela's Griptilian, all I need is a scrub pad?? Cool! :thumbup:
 
snausage said:
yea.. i was pretty surprised at how easily it came off...
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Seriously I think we all are. Benchmade has used two different coatings(yes I know they switched from birdsong to their own proprietary stuff but they're mostly the same). There was a paint like Black-T, which was usually applied over a very rough blade finish and resistant to chemical strippers. I had the displeasure of trying to sand that off of my M4 AFCK, and lemme tell you it would have taken a good bit more than 20 minutes with a GREEN scotchbrite of all things. The other one was a PVD coating, boron nitride I think, which a green scotbrite shouldnt' have taken off in 10 years worth of scrubbing.
 
i just got the knife a few weeks ago, so i think the finish was Benchmade's proprietary BK1 coating--this is what they advertise on their website--although i didn't purchase it directly from them.
i did have to scrub kinda hard... ... but not really that hard.
for what it's worth: before trying the scrubby pad, i did try to scratch the finish by using it to cut up some beer cans--this marred the finish a bit, but didn't penetrate through to the blade
 
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