SF shovel help

[Charlie_K]

So after the luck I've had with my tomahawk, I decided that I wanted to treat my special forces shovel the same. The only trouble is that whatever coating is on the head, I don't think it's paint. The stripper I'm using tore through the coating on the tomahawk heads with great gusto, but I've applied three coats to the shovel head, and it's barely touched it. Despite it eating through paint in 15 minutes, just as it advertises, it just sits there and gunks up on top of the paint. Does anyone know what will take this rhino skin off?

 

[SpikeHawk]

Sandpaper and elbow grease. But if you use the shovel as designed, the coating will come off. Trust me.

 

[Charlie_K]

Sandpaper and elbow grease. Two tools as universal as WD-40 and duct tape.

Well it certainly worked. But not on its own. After a lot of frustration with the paint stripper only taking the paint loose in certain parts, in between I'd start attacking the finish with a combination of a wire brush and sandpaper, scuffing up the surface of the finish, and hitting it with more paint stripper. Lather, rinse, repeat. Finally the stripper did its duty.

I've never seen finish this tough before though. It's like melted rubber or something.