Shiny black finish on a blade? Parkerzing, bluing, something else?

G

guy-montag

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Jun 30, 2011
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I'm working on a knife (D2 steel) and I wanted to get a black shiny finish on it. The scales are mammoth tooth ivory, so I wanted something that looked accordingly classy (no duracoat). I've seen damascus with a parkerized finished that was polished, but I wasn't sure what the effect would be on a uniform steel like D2. I thought about bluing, but it seems to end up closer to blue than black.

While it may not be a heavy duty use knife, I'd like to make the finish as durable as coatings can be. Any recommendations?

If you've seen black chrome, that's exactly what I'm looking for:

Black%20Chrome.JPG
 
Ionbond DLC coating. The blade will have to be mirror polished before the coating to look like black chrome.
 
Chrome plating uses acid baths for prep

I'd be afraid of hydrogen embrittlement in the blade


Find a plater and ask their tech service, with emphasis on your blade steel and hardness.


DLC coatings may be a better choice.
 
Give the blade a mirror finsih and then get it hot blued, not cold blued (big difference) It will look black and shiney. I know Karl B Andersen does this on a lot of his guards and on his damascus, and with a mirror polished spine like he does often on his blued damascus blades, it just looks sooo nice!

Here is a perfect example of what I'm talkin about, look at the mirror polished spine on this hot blued blade.

[video=youtube;EDKJYzU0leQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDKJYzU0leQ[/video]



Hot Blued mild steel guard and blade, but only the carbon steel core on the blade is able to blue since the sides of the san mai are made from stainless which doesn't react to blueing


Hope this helps a bit. Karl also has a video about hot blueing on his youtube channel.


-Paul
www.youtube.com/Lsubslimed
 
Not sure hot blue would work on D2.......
What about some of the bake on ceramic coatings?
Darcy
 
DLC is very interesting, but based on my limited understanding, it's also very expensive to have it done right.

guy-montag said:
Would the heat needed for a powder coat ruin the temper?
Click to expand...

No. Professional ceramic powder-coats (the kind they use on engine parts and exhausts for racing engines and whatnot) are cured at under 400F. That's not a problem for a knife blade's temper.
 
If my customers want a black blade I just tell them it will cost more. I won't compromise with lesser coatings. I recently had most of the parts of one of my autos DLC coated. The cost was less than $80. I'm sure a simple fixed blade would be less.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
If my customers want a black blade I just tell them it will cost more. I won't compromise with lesser coatings. I recently had most of the parts of one of my autos DLC coated. The cost was less than $80. I'm sure a simple fixed blade would be less.
Click to expand...

Any suggestions for vendors as far as DLC coatings go?
 
The blade on that San Mai is not blued. It's etched 1095.
But the guard IS blued. And it would look exactly like "black chrome" if it was mirror polished but it is a satin finish.


coldsteelburns said:
Give the blade a mirror finsih and then get it hot blued, not cold blued (big difference) It will look black and shiney. I know Karl B Andersen does this on a lot of his guards and on his damascus, and with a mirror polished spine like he does often on his blued damascus blades, it just looks sooo nice!

Here is a perfect example of what I'm talkin about, look at the mirror polished spine on this hot blued blade.

[video=youtube;EDKJYzU0leQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDKJYzU0leQ[/video]



Hot Blued mild steel guard and blade, but only the carbon steel core on the blade is able to blue since the sides of the san mai are made from stainless which doesn't react to blueing


Hope this helps a bit. Karl also has a video about hot blueing on his youtube channel.


-Paul
www.youtube.com/Lsubslimed
Click to expand...
 
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