removing dlc

D

dsalazar

Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
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Has any one removed dlc. I have removed the coating from a cold steel recon but it was more of a paint. I really want to reshape my zt 0350 but want to remove dlc if I do.
 
Look = link here

Other than that I think you are probably out of luck. The stuff is basically transferred to the surface like plating but unlike plating it is in what I believe is a plasma state (link= here) as it travels from the anode to the cathode. Good luck duplicating that in your garage to reverse the process.

 
Real DLC is harder than the blade to which it is applied and is much harder than paint. It is composed of Tungsten Carbide and has a Rockwell of 72C. Silicon Carbide coated paper may remove it. Aluminum Oxide less likely. Emory even less likely.
 
I was thinking of sic sandpaper but it seems like it would be a long task. I reshaped the handle with a Dremel. The steel liners took a couple hours. Only due to not having a bench grinder and not wanting to mess them up. I have a zt 0350 and want to shape it a little more like a zt 0360.
 
The DLC bond can be weakened with a soak in hydrogen peroxide. I forget where I read it, but it worked for my ZT770cfM4.

I pulled the blade out of my knife and soaked it in a glass filled with hydrogen peroxide for 1.5 - 2 hours. I kept checking on it, but it just sat there and every now and then it would release a gas bubble or two. Afterwards I hit it with some 2k SiC sandpaper under running water. That left me with the impromptu blackwash you see below.
2017-06-25 14.06.16.jpg
With how the ridges polished up after a minute or so of sandpaper, I would think the soaking is close to what was needed.
I sanded by hand and without a block so I would only soften it all around and polish the highs.

If you were to use a solid backer, I am sure you could get near all of it off relatively easily.
 
I may go this route. I'm regrinding the spine to give it more of a pointy tip. It's mainly the spine that's not going to have any dlc. I just don't want to leave it like that and rather make it look a little more uniform. Did the hydrogen peroxide affect the metal or edge at all?
 
Not that I was aware of, but then again I did resharpen it since it was due...

It did not affect the pivot area at all. I brought that up to 5k, the polished it with my strop.
 
Sandblast or grind it off... Pretty easy although the latter is pretty time consuming
 
I'm not setup for sandblasting but im most likely going to hand sand. It sounds like it's going to be drawn out through a couple days.
 
dsalazar said:
I'm not setup for sandblasting but im most likely going to hand sand. It sounds like it's going to be drawn out through a couple days.
Click to expand...

First and this is a bit tongue in cheek but would work if you want to try it :
All you need to sand blast is a funnel, a garden hose, a two story structure or cliff, someone to dump very fine sand (you can buy it in bags) into the funnel stuck n the end of the top end of the hose two stories above you. Say pour some sand in and you aim the bottom end of the hose where you want to blast. I have real sand blasting equipment and have done a fair amount of it but that is basically how the dudes did it back in the day . . . way, way back in the day. On a small scale.

As far as the DLC being hard to get off and the high hardness numbers, what was it ? 72.
That's just looking at numbers on a graph. From my experience the challenge of DLC is using the blade and NOT scratching it.

Use about any very coarse sand paper and you will be scratching this stuff off like crazy. Down side is you will then need to abrade the metal to get rid of the coarse scratches down to the scratch pattern that pleases you. Even a mirror polish is just finer scratches.
 
NJBillK said:
The DLC bond can be weakened with a soak in hydrogen peroxide. I forget where I read it, but it worked for my ZT770cfM4.

I pulled the blade out of my knife and soaked it in a glass filled with hydrogen peroxide for 1.5 - 2 hours. I kept checking on it, but it just sat there and every now and then it would release a gas bubble or two. Afterwards I hit it with some 2k SiC sandpaper under running water. That left me with the impromptu blackwash you see below.
View attachment 724695
With how the ridges polished up after a minute or so of sandpaper, I would think the soaking is close to what was needed.
I sanded by hand and without a block so I would only soften it all around and polish the highs.

If you were to use a solid backer, I am sure you could get near all of it off relatively easily.
Click to expand...

That blade looks great !​
Do you think the surface would have turned out much different without the soak ?
I am skeptical that the soak was needed. Anyone else get similar results with no soak ?
 
I think the soak did help. I tried hitting it with the 2k prior to the soak to see if there would be much of a difference. It scuffed it up, but didn't remove anything significant.

The bubbles were intermittent from random spots on the blade. They were generated in enough time that I could look over and watch one or two rise. I wouldn't say they were constant stream, but they were definitely being generated from some form of reaction.

Thanks for the compliments.
 
I'm reshaping the spine of my zt 0350. So it will not have dlc on the spine. I want to give it a satin finish. Instead of having a satin spine and coated sides.
 
NJBillK said:
I think the soak did help. I tried hitting it with the 2k prior to the soak . . . they [bubbles] were definitely being generated from some form of reaction.
Click to expand...

that's cool !
I've always thought of hydrogen peroxide as such mild , pour it on cuts in my skin, stuff.
From now on I will look at it as armor plate dissolving, heat shield melting, magic elixir .
 
Wowbagger Wowbagger
Lol.
It is actually a bit rougher than one thinks on skin too.

The way it goes about "cleaning" a wound is by eating away at the surface slightly to reveal "fresher" tissue. This is particularly beneficial when you are putting some ointment (triple bac, bacitracin, et al) on it to expedite healing. Which is generally used in a dirty cut or a scrape after a decent cleaning by means of picking the larger bits out, then scrubbing and flushing it out.
Oh, a word of experience, the scrubbing bit sucks the most.

If you can't tell, I have fallen down a lot.
 
NJBillK said:
I think the soak did help. I tried hitting it with the 2k prior to the soak to see if there would be much of a difference. It scuffed it up, but didn't remove anything significant.
Click to expand...
I've contacted you about that in the past...but didn't end up trying it on the knife I was focused on at the time.
Looking at the quoted statement, I find myself wondering if the "pre-sanding" is a key step. Would the same effect have been attained without it, or might the unmarred DLC have withstood the challenge? I've still got my 0770cfm4 sitting new in the box...maybe I'll do some experimenting one rainy day this week.
 
Wowbagger said:
that's cool !
I've always thought of hydrogen peroxide as such mild , pour it on cuts in my skin, stuff.
From now on I will look at it as armor plate dissolving, heat shield melting, magic elixir .
Click to expand...

The stuff you buy at the grocery / Rx is mild, 3.5% (at max and often 1.75%). Head out to your local chemical supply and you can find it in 70% and sometimes even 100% (undiluted) strength. IT WILL F YOU UP!

DO NOT put that stuff on your skin, it should be treated like any other powerful chemical: full face shield and other PPE!!
 
hhmoore said:
I've contacted you about that in the past...but didn't end up trying it on the knife I was focused on at the time.
Looking at the quoted statement, I find myself wondering if the "pre-sanding" is a key step. Would the same effect have been attained without it, or might the unmarred DLC have withstood the challenge? I've still got my 0770cfm4 sitting new in the box...maybe I'll do some experimenting one rainy day this week.
Click to expand...
I only sanded a small portion. The way that I looked at it, why sand the whole thing if a small spot would be easier and give me the information I sought.

It was above the flipper tab on the pile (lock) side, so if it was significantly different, it wouldn't effect the look too drastically in a spot that was immediately visable.

I was primarily curious about how hard it would be to sand off. But I didn't want an overly stripped area the size of a fingerprint on the secondary when a more inconspicuous spot was available.
 
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Talking about powerful chemicals. I clean and repair pools. Muriatic acid will give you some new skin and a new outlook on chemicals.
 
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