- Joined
- Apr 13, 2004
- Messages
- 17,558
So, I haven't been terribly satisfied how this Tanker Gray coating has been holding up on my NMFSH. If you recall, this is the "Gray" that my wife dubbed "Unicorn Sparkle" Tanker Gray. Nobody who has seen it in person thinks it is really very gray. Instead, it looks brownish. I've never been real thrilled with it, and from day one I have planned on stripping it once it had mostly worn off. However, this particular coating has worn strangely as compared to any other Bussekin I've owned. As you can see in the "before" pictures, the coating didn't really wear smoothly as usual. Instead, it was almost peeling off in flakes while chopping, and it wasn't wearing the same on both side either. Bizzare. 
Also, this is the thinnest (and one of the smoothest) Bussekin coatings I've personally come across. Anyway, here is what it looked like earlier today before I got the urge to just strip it off:
While I have scraped the blade a little bit on a couple nails while chopping, you can see the strange way the coating was coming off, especially the one big spot on the opposite side from the logo. I have no idea how that happened. I was using it to split firewood while camping not too long ago when at some point that spot of coating came off. You can see some other marks on the other side where it looks like the coating looks like it has peeled at the edge of the normal coating wear. Anyway, I got tired of looking at it and went ahead and stripped it today. Here's how it turned out right after stripping and scrubbing it down with hot water and Dawn dish soap to clean it:
Not too shabby, but you can see some oxide spots on it and a little bit of staining in a few places. No biggie though. I think this makes it pretty obviously why Busse didn't want to offer the competition finish on these. But to add to the strangeness of this particular coating, it did not come off of the blade anywhere near as easily as any other Bussekin I've previously stripped. I used the same stripper I've always used, and typically after about 10 minutes the coating has shrunken up and lifted right off of the knife's surface, no mechanical help needed. All you usually have to do is wipe the knife down with a paper towel and you're done. Not this one, oh noooo. After soaking for 20 minutes, the coating had only just slightly softened. It took a fair bit of work to scrape any off with a nylon pan scraper, and even with some good elbow grease it was tough going. I got as much as I could get off, then coated the knife with more stripper. Initially I thought maybe my stripper was getting old, but I sprayed a bit on an old dresser sitting outside and the paint was falling off in only 5 minutes. It finally took me scrubbing the knife down with a brass and then a nylon brush in order to get this coating off. I think I had to reapply the stripper 6 or 7 times. FAR more work than any other I've dealt with.
Anyway, after cleaning and taking pics, I oiled it up with a little bit of mineral oil and took a couple more pics (below). It certainly looks better than it did with the coating, and I'll probably leave it like this for now. There is some kind of oxide layer (or maybe some kind of primer) still on the blade, so it isn't as shiny as say a satin finished blade, but I didn't feel like going any further with it today. Eventually, I'll put a ScotchBrite belt on my sander and polish it up all nice and pretty. It'll do for now though.
I'll try to get some better pictures in some good light tomorrow. Have a good weekend folks!
Also, this is the thinnest (and one of the smoothest) Bussekin coatings I've personally come across. Anyway, here is what it looked like earlier today before I got the urge to just strip it off:
While I have scraped the blade a little bit on a couple nails while chopping, you can see the strange way the coating was coming off, especially the one big spot on the opposite side from the logo. I have no idea how that happened. I was using it to split firewood while camping not too long ago when at some point that spot of coating came off. You can see some other marks on the other side where it looks like the coating looks like it has peeled at the edge of the normal coating wear. Anyway, I got tired of looking at it and went ahead and stripped it today. Here's how it turned out right after stripping and scrubbing it down with hot water and Dawn dish soap to clean it:
Not too shabby, but you can see some oxide spots on it and a little bit of staining in a few places. No biggie though. I think this makes it pretty obviously why Busse didn't want to offer the competition finish on these. But to add to the strangeness of this particular coating, it did not come off of the blade anywhere near as easily as any other Bussekin I've previously stripped. I used the same stripper I've always used, and typically after about 10 minutes the coating has shrunken up and lifted right off of the knife's surface, no mechanical help needed. All you usually have to do is wipe the knife down with a paper towel and you're done. Not this one, oh noooo. After soaking for 20 minutes, the coating had only just slightly softened. It took a fair bit of work to scrape any off with a nylon pan scraper, and even with some good elbow grease it was tough going. I got as much as I could get off, then coated the knife with more stripper. Initially I thought maybe my stripper was getting old, but I sprayed a bit on an old dresser sitting outside and the paint was falling off in only 5 minutes. It finally took me scrubbing the knife down with a brass and then a nylon brush in order to get this coating off. I think I had to reapply the stripper 6 or 7 times. FAR more work than any other I've dealt with.
Anyway, after cleaning and taking pics, I oiled it up with a little bit of mineral oil and took a couple more pics (below). It certainly looks better than it did with the coating, and I'll probably leave it like this for now. There is some kind of oxide layer (or maybe some kind of primer) still on the blade, so it isn't as shiny as say a satin finished blade, but I didn't feel like going any further with it today. Eventually, I'll put a ScotchBrite belt on my sander and polish it up all nice and pretty. It'll do for now though.
I'll try to get some better pictures in some good light tomorrow. Have a good weekend folks!
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