- Joined
- Sep 7, 2016
- Messages
- 423
A while back I picked up an SR-101 Active Duty with a Kydex sheath off the exchange for cheap. No one really wanted it so I got it because I like Active duties and wanted to test out some mods on it before I did any mods to INFI or elmax.
The AD came to me sharpened from a previous owner with a decent edge but the bevel was very wide. The SR-101 AD is a very thick blade from spine to cutting edge and still very thick behind cutting edge which is why the bevel is so wide. I am waiting on some finishing stones and sanding tools to come in the mail to thin the edge out and get the AD to where it will be a nice slicer and great all around blade but in the mean time that is the last step for the AD.
The first modification I did to the AD was to put a choil in, I don't have the proper tools to perform this job so I had it sent away and they did an ok job but it was ameature at best, the choil was canted and they did not blend the transition points very well and they knicked up the coating in a few places away from the choil... Had this not been a project knife I would have actually been pretty pissed.
It seems like most of us prefer naked striped blades with either B.I.G., competition finish or satin finish instead of the coating.
INFI is the clear cut winner for steel but we all know it comes at a price with even more of a sting on the pocket book for the naked finishes and sometimes even worse off the exchange.
Then there is SR-101 where many claim it has better "edge" (not diving into details on this) but at the trade off with a higher tendency to rust.
I personally prefer INFI for the easier maintaince or perceived notion that it is easier to maintain but there are some SR-101 designs that I love so much. So I sat out to learn the truth about SR-101 for myself...
It seems like SR-101 gets a bad rap at times but then again it depends on several variables. Some say it rust just looking at it, where others show pictures of their stripped blades with no issues and minimal maintaince without rust, then you look at their location and realize they are located in a dry arid climate where rusting is not a typical issue for knives.
Well, I had lots of questions and not a lot of answers, but my main worry was stripping an SR-101 blade and having to constantly battle rust or spotting, or just more blade maintenance than I wanted to perform. These concerns came from my first Busse Kin which was and is a Swamprat Ratmandu which I put a mirror finish edge on it and month or so later it had spots on it before it left the inside of my house, so I stropped the RMD a few times and the spots went away and haven't really been back since.
So this got me thinking about how or if I could get SR-101 naked and prevent rust in the DEEP SOUTH. I live in Florida and I use most of my blades in very hot humid places where rust and spotting easily occurs.
So I electro-etched the Busse logo with a 9v battery and salt water, then stripped the AD using citristip gel and a paint scraper. Once finish I cleaned it up with a wire brush.
From this point, the AD was pretty rough under the coating and its clear why Busse puts the coating on. It would take so much more time to put a satin finish that the cost would be too much.
So I proceeded to clean up the whole knife and get all sides equal. To speed up the process on the spine and all the way around the handle I used a Dremel or it would have taken much longer. The critistip kind of rooughed up the micrarta but I wasn't worried. I put oil on one side to try to restore it and did nothing to the other side to see what would happen. After normal handling both sides returned to the original color before the stripping so I am not worried about taping handles in the future.
From this point, I put 4 different finishes on the AD to do some rust testing.
1. On the side, with the logo, I performed the least amount of work and virtually left it raw. I used a wire wheel to clean off all the decarb and then briefly hit it with some white compound on a buffer then cleaned off the surface and left it raw.
2. Then on the spine, I put a mirror finish going from 80, 220, 400, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500 grit
3. Then on the other side of the blade, I put a semi-mirror finish by hand so there are multi-directional scratch patterns.
4. All around the handle I did a basic satin finish going from 80, 220, to 400 grit.
I then put the blade tip down in a wooden anvil for 4 days and 4 nights with no treatment of any kind on the blade to see what would happen
The satin finish to 400 grit started rusting on the first night and only got worse, the raw finish might have had an extremely tiny spot or two but would be so hard to tell because of the raw finish and the rest of the finishes did not rust at all.
It appears a raw finish or high grit finish more or less prevents rust on SR-101 in 80 degree temperatures with 100% humidity and rain.
Next test I will do is a satin finish on one side to 600 grit and to 800 grit on the other side but I wanted to post this first because I am not sure when I will have more free time to complete the next test.
This is how I got the AD off of the exchange.
These next are of the etching stripping process, you can see where the spine was rough and were I dremmeled and sanded before the final finish as well as the mircarta slabs with and without oil and the stripping process in general.
These are the 4 sides finished before the rust test
Now for the Rust test.
Next are the Post rust test phots, one of each side in daylight and inside lighting
The AD came to me sharpened from a previous owner with a decent edge but the bevel was very wide. The SR-101 AD is a very thick blade from spine to cutting edge and still very thick behind cutting edge which is why the bevel is so wide. I am waiting on some finishing stones and sanding tools to come in the mail to thin the edge out and get the AD to where it will be a nice slicer and great all around blade but in the mean time that is the last step for the AD.
The first modification I did to the AD was to put a choil in, I don't have the proper tools to perform this job so I had it sent away and they did an ok job but it was ameature at best, the choil was canted and they did not blend the transition points very well and they knicked up the coating in a few places away from the choil... Had this not been a project knife I would have actually been pretty pissed.
It seems like most of us prefer naked striped blades with either B.I.G., competition finish or satin finish instead of the coating.
INFI is the clear cut winner for steel but we all know it comes at a price with even more of a sting on the pocket book for the naked finishes and sometimes even worse off the exchange.
Then there is SR-101 where many claim it has better "edge" (not diving into details on this) but at the trade off with a higher tendency to rust.
I personally prefer INFI for the easier maintaince or perceived notion that it is easier to maintain but there are some SR-101 designs that I love so much. So I sat out to learn the truth about SR-101 for myself...
It seems like SR-101 gets a bad rap at times but then again it depends on several variables. Some say it rust just looking at it, where others show pictures of their stripped blades with no issues and minimal maintaince without rust, then you look at their location and realize they are located in a dry arid climate where rusting is not a typical issue for knives.
Well, I had lots of questions and not a lot of answers, but my main worry was stripping an SR-101 blade and having to constantly battle rust or spotting, or just more blade maintenance than I wanted to perform. These concerns came from my first Busse Kin which was and is a Swamprat Ratmandu which I put a mirror finish edge on it and month or so later it had spots on it before it left the inside of my house, so I stropped the RMD a few times and the spots went away and haven't really been back since.
So this got me thinking about how or if I could get SR-101 naked and prevent rust in the DEEP SOUTH. I live in Florida and I use most of my blades in very hot humid places where rust and spotting easily occurs.
So I electro-etched the Busse logo with a 9v battery and salt water, then stripped the AD using citristip gel and a paint scraper. Once finish I cleaned it up with a wire brush.
From this point, the AD was pretty rough under the coating and its clear why Busse puts the coating on. It would take so much more time to put a satin finish that the cost would be too much.
So I proceeded to clean up the whole knife and get all sides equal. To speed up the process on the spine and all the way around the handle I used a Dremel or it would have taken much longer. The critistip kind of rooughed up the micrarta but I wasn't worried. I put oil on one side to try to restore it and did nothing to the other side to see what would happen. After normal handling both sides returned to the original color before the stripping so I am not worried about taping handles in the future.
From this point, I put 4 different finishes on the AD to do some rust testing.
1. On the side, with the logo, I performed the least amount of work and virtually left it raw. I used a wire wheel to clean off all the decarb and then briefly hit it with some white compound on a buffer then cleaned off the surface and left it raw.
2. Then on the spine, I put a mirror finish going from 80, 220, 400, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500 grit
3. Then on the other side of the blade, I put a semi-mirror finish by hand so there are multi-directional scratch patterns.
4. All around the handle I did a basic satin finish going from 80, 220, to 400 grit.
I then put the blade tip down in a wooden anvil for 4 days and 4 nights with no treatment of any kind on the blade to see what would happen
The satin finish to 400 grit started rusting on the first night and only got worse, the raw finish might have had an extremely tiny spot or two but would be so hard to tell because of the raw finish and the rest of the finishes did not rust at all.
It appears a raw finish or high grit finish more or less prevents rust on SR-101 in 80 degree temperatures with 100% humidity and rain.
Next test I will do is a satin finish on one side to 600 grit and to 800 grit on the other side but I wanted to post this first because I am not sure when I will have more free time to complete the next test.
This is how I got the AD off of the exchange.
These next are of the etching stripping process, you can see where the spine was rough and were I dremmeled and sanded before the final finish as well as the mircarta slabs with and without oil and the stripping process in general.
These are the 4 sides finished before the rust test
Now for the Rust test.
Next are the Post rust test phots, one of each side in daylight and inside lighting
