Some questions about the coating

bchan77 · Mar 23, 2012

Hello all, I am new to this forum and am thinking of buying one of the tweeners as my first Becker when they are available. I have some questions about the coating on the knives. I have read posts from brothers who remove the coating as soon as their new knives arrive and am a little puzzled. Isn't the purpose of the coating is to protect the blade from the elements? Why do people remove the coating, is it that the coating is crap? And, if removing the coating is desirable, what is the easiest way to do this? Thanks!

oXide · Mar 23, 2012

People remove the coating to mod it, not because it's crap (unless you get the first production run tweeners, the coating on them aint to great), but because they like the shiny part better, or they want to put some gun blue on it, or they want to etch it. There are a million reasons to strip it, and none are because the coating is bad, just not what people want.

ocnLogan · Mar 23, 2012

The coating is not in fact bad, its just a personal preference.

The coating does give the blade more friction when cutting through media (mostly batoning), so some remove it for that. Others just want to customize it or like certain looks.

The fact of the matter is that if you use it hard, the coating will come off anyway through normal wear and tear. So some people just go straight to the stripped blade.

RogueBowie · Mar 23, 2012

I like to 'use' some of the coating away first, then strip. It's fun to see how the things you do with your knife leave tracks on the blade, can also be a guide to show you how your chopping/batonning techniques work.

thrillbilly · Mar 23, 2012

because with the black coating a bk9 looks like this

and WITHOUT the coating the bk9 can look like this

ocnLogan · Mar 23, 2012

^^This, definitely this

.

clich · Mar 23, 2012

Pros of stripping- less friction, not so beat up look, modding, use mineral oil to protect against rust

cons of stripping- no rust protection, lose beat up manly look

bchan77 · Mar 23, 2012

Thanks to all who replied, I have a great deal to learn. I have some further questions:

(1) How do you exactly remove the coating? Do you manually scrape off the coating bit by bit? That looks too tedious to me.

(2) Once the factory coating is removed, and if you wish to put on a second coating, what coating do you recommend, and how to do it? Thanks!

BePrepared · Mar 23, 2012

look at my post on my bk7 gettin nekid... it'll detail the process for you... it will eventually show from start to finish making it mirror polished

BRL · Mar 23, 2012

First off, it's important to remember that the HONEST reason for the coating is so the knife factories don't have to spend as much time=money sanding down the factory grind marks. Sure it helps with rust resistance, but most of these coatings don't last all that long, rust isn't a huge issue to begin with, and the tiniest bit of occasional maintenance with mineral oil makes it a moot point anyway. Personally, I kinda like the colors (other companies use different colored coatings). I regret stripping my BK2 because the black looked b.a.

Stripping is easy. Remove scales, spray with Kleen Kote stripper liberally, let sit, scrape with plastic scraper, repeat if necessary, sand remaining coating off.

Alternate coatings include gun bluing, etching, and I've done a couple knives with Plum's brown.

EPOCH · Mar 25, 2012

I too am new to the forum. I own a couple of Beckers & want to start some Modding. Starting with the BK9 Just finished stripping & was wondering if bluing the blade will inhibit rust?

@thrillbilly- Love the Mods you did to the 9. how'd you do the etching to the blade?

CamH_16 · Mar 25, 2012

Strip the coating by using paint stripper. Most hardware or auto parts stores will stock it. Start by using a piece of sandpaper to break up the coating (just scratch the surface) and spray/paint on the stripper. Breaking up the coating before stripping help ALOT...Otherwsise you'll be having to do several strips. For putting on a coating again you'd have to use duracoat or ceracoat or something (heavy duty paint) Hope this helps man.

CamH_16 · Mar 25, 2012

EPOCH said:
I too am new to the forum. I own a couple of Beckers & want to start some Modding. Starting with the BK9 Just finished stripping & was wondering if bluing the blade will inhibit rust?

@thrillbilly- Love the Mods you did to the 9. how'd you do the etching to the blade?

Yeah, after blueing you must put on a good coating of oil or it will strt to rust. Etching the blade is pretty simple, blue it, put it in a bucket of bleach, take it out after about 30 mins (depends) sand it down and reblue...then sand again. Yeah I Know, not very through. This was posted by Clich I think for his BK-9:

Strip and sand the knife.

Get letter or design stickers from craft store.

Get etchant solution from radio shack

get heavy duty spray paint (like caliper or engine paint)

PLace letters how you want

spray paint one coat, when tacky spray another heavier coat (entire knife including the edge and all) (make sure coats are even so paint doesnt run and seep under the letters)

when slightly tacky remove letters carefully with tweezers paying fine attention to not messing up the outline (i removed when tacky for two reasons one so the wet paint wouldnt run onto the letters, and two so that when i peeled them off they didnt take extra paint with it.)

let sit over night to dry then spray paint the other side two coats

Submerge in etchant soultion. Now depending on how deep you wanna go the time frame is up to you. I did 2 hours since it was on the grind and a deep etch could weaken the blade. a design on the flats i would say leave for double the time. (ps make sure edge is COATED WELL with paint)

Remove from solution and wash with soap and water.

Restrip.

patina as desired, mine is a blue bleach etch where i used vaseline to protect the lettering and the edge. I didnt want the blue bleach etch to cross into the letters and make it unreadable.

thrillbilly · Mar 25, 2012

CamH_16 said:
Yeah, after blueing you must put on a good coating of oil or it will strt to rust. Etching the blade is pretty simple, blue it, put it in a bucket of bleach, take it out after about 30 mins (depends) sand it down and reblue...then sand again. Yeah I Know, not very through. This was posted by Clich I think for his BK-9:

Strip and sand the knife.

Get letter or design stickers from craft store.

Get etchant solution from radio shack

get heavy duty spray paint (like caliper or engine paint)

PLace letters how you want

spray paint one coat, when tacky spray another heavier coat (entire knife including the edge and all) (make sure coats are even so paint doesnt run and seep under the letters)

when slightly tacky remove letters carefully with tweezers paying fine attention to not messing up the outline (i removed when tacky for two reasons one so the wet paint wouldnt run onto the letters, and two so that when i peeled them off they didnt take extra paint with it.)

let sit over night to dry then spray paint the other side two coats

Submerge in etchant soultion. Now depending on how deep you wanna go the time frame is up to you. I did 2 hours since it was on the grind and a deep etch could weaken the blade. a design on the flats i would say leave for double the time. (ps make sure edge is COATED WELL with paint)

Remove from solution and wash with soap and water.

Restrip.

patina as desired, mine is a blue bleach etch where i used vaseline to protect the lettering and the edge. I didnt want the blue bleach etch to cross into the letters and make it unreadable.

thats the instructions to do a Lettering Etch, NOT to do the coldblue/bleach etch.

Here's the link to the how-to thread, will explain it all.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...er-etch-how-to-NEW-TECHNIQUE-AND-PICS-POST-25