Stonewashed vs.Satin

I

InternetDominus

Joined
Jul 27, 2014
Messages
7
Hello,

Is there any difference in terms of quality when talking about stonewashed or satin blades?
Or, is it only a presentation/look issue?

Thanks,

ID
 
There may be some friction difference when you are cutting through material, but this is probably not very important.
 
stonewash helps to alleviate reflection, so that the enemy or prey wouldn't notice...the same use as layer on tactical knives, but stonewash won't prevent corrosion.
 
a stonewashed finish hides minor scratches - great for users

satin finish looks great but i would not use my satin finish blades hard - prone to micro scratches
 
I like satin and polished blades best. I try to get it for limited/numbered editions.

But for practicality, on a knife I'll be using a lot, I get the stonewashed because it doesn't rust as easily as bead-blasted and it's better hiding marks.
 
InternetDominus said:
Is there any difference in terms of quality when talking about stonewashed or satin blades?
Or, is it only a presentation/look issue?
Click to expand...

What quality are you talking about and what manufacturer?

I like the fine quality grinding on my Benchmades and most of my Spydercos- the satin finish and the crisp grind lines. I think this takes quality manufacturing to achieve. I have a Kershaw Blur with heavily stonewashed blade and it has none of the quality look of fine grinds and crisp edges. IMO you can manufacture a blade with crude grinding, what would be ugly to a person, and then heavily stonewash it until all the ugly griding is hidden. So from a manufacturing standpoint IMO stonewashing is a lower quality. From a using standpoint it may have some advantages. I have not used my Blur against other knives enough to prove to myself which one would show scratches the least. All of this is my opinion, some people like stonewashing more than I do.

I have a hollow ground Spyderco Manix 2 and its blade seems to have some form of stonewashed/polished finish that is much different from my Blur. To me it looks better than the finish of the Blur but it doesn't have crisp grind lines. I still prefer the finish of the Para2 for instance:

IMG_2842b_zpsee007827.jpg
 
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