Removing the Black Coating from my BM 140 Nimravus

B

Brian6244

Joined
Aug 25, 2004
Messages
537
I am about to purchase a BM 140 Nimravus (once I decide between 154CM and M2) and I would like to know the best way to remove the black BT2 coating. I saw in this thread where Snoopy shows this beautiful picture of his Nimravus with the coating removed, so I know it is certainly possible. I am wondering what is the best way to go about doing this and if there is any difference in the method used based on whether the material is 154CM or M2 (since I'm still deciding and this may help make my decision).

On a side note, I am leaning towards 154CM since this knife will be exposed to fresh water on a regular basis and salt water on rare occasions and without the BT2 coating I fear that I won't be able to perform enough maintenance to keep the M2 from corroding.
 
I don't know much about the knife you are asking about, but I have removed the coating from many coated knives.
For blades coated with black epoxy, I use the Orange-Style paint remover (actually any type will work). Just coat the blade and wipe off after several minutes to an hour. I have done this on many Cold Steel blades for customers.

I have removed Teflon (inert) coatings from blades by using a rotary brass-wire brush on a bench grinder, working very slowly and carefully (very dangerous). Then sanding by hand or buffing with a sisal wheel and cut-and-color bar. Most recently I have done this with a Cold Steel Night Force folder.

You can also remove any coating by sanding, but that can take a while...

Good luck, and be careful,
Brome
 
I had been considering sanding with 2000 grit paper but that would take forever and would be especially diffcult with finger grooves, screws etc. If a paint remover would work on the BT2, that would be perfect! I'll have to take a look in the paint section in Home Depot. I guess I just want the strongest stuff they've got right? Certainly even the strong stuff won't harm metals like 154cm and ATS34 ... right?
 
I want to remove black coating from a pocket clip. I assume I could use the same methods?
 
I recently removed the green coating from a MT LCC, by hand. My understanding (incredibly likely to be incorrect) is that paint removal type products would have little impact on “Ti ni” (or Boron oxide maybe) “coatings" so knowing what you are working with could be very useful.
Anyway, it wasn’t much fun and one has to be patient and use progressively finer sandpaper. I started with 320, then 600, then “very fine” steel wool, then 1500 sandpaper. I’ve always read that one should use waterproof sandpaper for this, so I did. It turned out pretty good but, as you pointed out Brian (number 6,244), finger grooves, screws etc… are especially challenging. To make it slightly less so, I took the LCC apart (its own small challenge) including removing the thumbstuds, all of which voids the useless MT warranty. Many manufacturers use loctite to make sure essential components don’t loosen up, so you might wish to communicate directly with someone who has disassemble your model to find out any such nuances.
I had to keep reminding myself that I bought this particular LCC to be a user, otherwise I would still be at it, working on this or that speck that lacks perfection. I’m glad I did it, and I would consider doing so again but would probably be more aggressive initially with the 320. I also found it worthwhile to work back and forth at times reverting from finer, to courser sandpaper. I also agree with Wapiti that using a bench grinder can create its own peril. I suppose if you are used to it, slightly less so, but I wouldn’t want this to be one of my first bench grinder projects. You are likely to need to reprofile the blade after all that sanding.
Good luck with it,
Rats...
 
The easies,t least messy way I have found to do this is with a 'Rust Earser' like from Stanley Tools, just rub it on the blade and the black goes away leaving a frosted steel kind of look.
 
I removed the black coating from my 806. That was the easy part, getting the surface to have a nice looking finish was difficult.

The thing is that the metal under the coating is left rough. The reason, from what I have heard, is to improve the adhesion of the coating to the metal, but it could also just be that since it is going to be coated anyway there is no need to put a nice looking finish on the metal because it will be hidden.

Either way, this just gives me an excuse to show my shiney bladed 806.

15149548061.JPG

15149558062.JPG
 
M2 with out bt2 has a better chance of rusting. BM made a satin 440C (no bt2) finish BM 145 but it is discontinued.
 
cmd said:
I removed the black coating from my 806. That was the easy part, getting the surface to have a nice looking finish was difficult.
Either way, this just gives me an excuse to show my shiney bladed 806.
Click to expand...
Yepperooo;
Mine started out like this (with respect for the Badguy, who can actually take a decent picture):
lccgreen.jpg


Then went to this:
lccbroke.jpg


And now is here (for awhile, anyway):
lccafter3.jpg

lccafter2.jpg


The MT logo is still faintly visible on the blade, as are the other markings. I really chewed up the thumbstud trying to get it off (combination of locktite and wrong tools for the job), but finally did. Were I to do any more work on this one, I would feel obligated to change it out.
Rats...
 
Wapiti said:
I don't know much about the knife you are asking about, but I have removed the coating from many coated knives.
For blades coated with black epoxy, I use the Orange-Style paint remover (actually any type will work). Just coat the blade and wipe off after several minutes to an hour. I have done this on many Cold Steel blades for customers.

I have removed Teflon (inert) coatings from blades by using a rotary brass-wire brush on a bench grinder, working very slowly and carefully (very dangerous). Then sanding by hand or buffing with a sisal wheel and cut-and-color bar. Most recently I have done this with a Cold Steel Night Force folder.

You can also remove any coating by sanding, but that can take a while...

Good luck, and be careful,
Brome
Click to expand...


Well I got some of the orange paint remover at home depot yesterday and that is some serious stuff. Was the strongest stuff they had. I let my BM145 154CM w/BT2 litteraly soak in it for 4 hours and it had absolutaly no effect on it. Then just to make sure I didnt get the wrong stuff, I took my Ken Brock HAK with a black polymer-type coating and put it in the orange snot (thats what it looks like :)) and in 30min the coating on the HAK was lifting off on it's own (looked like curdled milk) with no rubbing or any other assistance at all from me. It would appear that BM is using some very serious coating and the only thing that is going to remove it is good ole fashioned sand paper. :(
 
Brian6244 said:
Well I got some of the orange paint remover at home depot yesterday and that is some serious stuff. Was the strongest stuff they had. I let my BM145 154CM w/BT2 litteraly soak in it for 4 hours and it had absolutaly no effect on it. Then just to make sure I didnt get the wrong stuff, I took my Ken Brock HAK with a black polymer-type coating and put it in the orange snot (thats what it looks like :)) and in 30min the coating on the HAK was lifting off on it's own (looked like curdled milk) with no rubbing or any other assistance at all from me. It would appear that BM is using some very serious coating and the only thing that is going to remove it is good ole fashioned sand paper. :(
Click to expand...
It will be worth it. It will look nice!
 
cmd said:
You sir, have exceptional tallent! :cool:

I'm sure tat was a lot more work than just careful buffing and it is a thing of beauty.
Click to expand...
A bit more than that, but for the most part the coating came off with the buffer. It was the old BT2 coating though.
 
Brian6244 said:
Well I got some of the orange paint remover at home depot yesterday and that is some serious stuff. Was the strongest stuff they had. I let my BM145 154CM w/BT2 litteraly soak in it for 4 hours and it had absolutaly no effect on it. Then just to make sure I didnt get the wrong stuff, I took my Ken Brock HAK with a black polymer-type coating and put it in the orange snot (thats what it looks like :)) and in 30min the coating on the HAK was lifting off on it's own (looked like curdled milk) with no rubbing or any other assistance at all from me. It would appear that BM is using some very serious coating and the only thing that is going to remove it is good ole fashioned sand paper. :(
Click to expand...


Yeah, that stuff is a polymer based powder coating instead of the epoxy based powder coating. It works fairly well but does come off a little too easy. We aren't using that particular coating anymore.

If you have any problems with your HAK, give me a shout.

kb
 
No problems with it at all. As a matter of fact, though it came off easily when I intentionally removed it with the orange snot from Home Depot, it remained in tact 100% through lots of normal useage.
 
Plumber576 where did you have it bead blasted? Did you do it yourself in a bead blast cabinet? How much did it cost? What was the turn around time?
 
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