Stripping advice

[Sharp Minded]

The battery worked for me, but it was definitely just etched, not deeply engraved like lex2006 and VashHash in the pictures above.

 

[lex2006]

If you use batteries bank them together it will go a lot faster and also load the water up with lots of salt ,
warm water will help dissolve it better too.

If you are using power supply at 12 volts try it about 6 amps , it will start to sizzle quickly, the q tip will last about 15 secounds and turn ugly stinky brown color chuck that out. The dirty will cause your etch to turn black.
And do not breath these fumes, very very bad fumes.

 

[resinguy]

And do not breath these fumes, very very bad fumes.

That would be Chlorine gas.

 

[AntDog]

Old thread, I know…

What do you guys use to strip the coating off after you etch the logos? And what’s “decarb” even look like and how do you know when it’s all off? Green pad or sandpaper?

Sorry for all the questions but I have a blade I want to try this on this weekend.

 

[VashHash]

I've used citri strip before and a few other industrial strippers. Decarb is usually a black color kinda flat most times. You can use paper or scotch Brite. Mainly depends what finish you want. I believe the red scotch bright was pretty aggressive. If you don't have decarb you would see bare steel from my experience usually flat ground blades don't have decarb. Another fun way to tell if infi has decarb is to look for rust decarb attracts rust like a magnet where as infi doesn't. Once you get the decarb off you shouldn't see much rust unless you neglect your blade or sweat on it.

 

[tinfoil hat timmy]

dont forget yo use your hips

 

[Crag the Brewer]

Old thread, I know…

What do you guys use to strip the coating off after you etch the logos? And what’s “decarb” even look like and how do you know when it’s all off? Green pad or sandpaper?

Sorry for all the questions but I have a blade I want to try this on this weekend.

I use citri-strip too, it's awesome and smells nice.

You might not like the surface underneath. Be prepared for that.
my 1311 looks like a beaver chewed on it..... I Still Love the knife.
But, she's UGLY!

 

[AntDog]

I’ve used citri-strip before on bike parts and I think I have some in the garage. I just didn’t know if it was aggressive enough.

 

[AntDog]

Tried my hand at this over the past couple of days. Yesterday I etched the logo with a 9 volt and q-tips. Took a little time to get set up because one of the wires wasn’t making good contact - had to cut about half an inch off, strip it, and recrimp it. Down to bidness after that. Total actual etching time I’d estimate ~ 40 minutes.



Today I floated it in paint stripper for 35 minutes in an aluminum foil pack on a sheet tray. Couldn’t find my citristrip so I got the yellow can 2 minute stuff from Walmart. Coating sloughed right off barely touching it with a plastic butter knife. Used gloves but the stuff ate em. Hosed it off outside and took it in the house once nearly all the coating was off. Washed it well with dawn in the sink.

Had a good layer of decarb on it that started to rust instantly. Went straight to the couch and me and my son cracked a few beers as we watched top gun maverick, took turns running green pads all over it. Came out extremely good looking to my eye. Love how it turned out.





Dat temper line - owwwww, sexay, sexayyy!!!



Very happy with the etch on the logo. Even caught the itty bitty type.



Also note the lack of all the goofy intentional looking dremel chatter marks on this one. She was a looker under that coating, just had to do my part.

 

[ferider]

That came out great !

 

[AntDog]

That came out great !

Thanks! My other M6 came to me already stripped. The one I stripped started out like this (black one):



These are my two favorite Rats. Two of my favorite blades regardless of maker, actually. Was itching to get out with one today but it’s raining like crazy here.

 

[Don't drop it.]

Or save a buck fifty and use a kinda dull razor blade and scrape it off. That’s what I’ve always done. And you don’t have to worry about rust under the scales.
When you’re done wipe it off and use coconut oil to preserve it. It’s food grade so you can trust it to slice your apple..

 

[dogboye]

Or save a buck fifty and use a kinda dull razor blade and scrape it off. That’s what I’ve always done. And you don’t have to worry about rust under the scales.
When you’re done wipe it off and use coconut oil to preserve it. It’s food grade so you can trust it to slice your apple..

You've done it that way?! How long did THAT take??
Is it better at removing the carburization underneath the paint?

 

[AntDog]

Or save a buck fifty and use a kinda dull razor blade and scrape it off. That’s what I’ve always done. And you don’t have to worry about rust under the scales.
When you’re done wipe it off and use coconut oil to preserve it. It’s food grade so you can trust it to slice your apple..

My time’s more valuable than that.

 

[Father & Son Traditional Sharpening]

You've done it that way?! How long did THAT take??
Is it better at removing the carburization underneath the paint?

I've done it with an old school Badger Attack to get the coating off an ASHBM I had years ago. It shaves right off in short order with a good edge on just about any blade. Would not be something I'll likely do again but if you don't have stripper on hand it will get the job done but I'd stay away from the handles if going that route. I was left with a pretty interesting 'look' on the blade that almost looked like an apocolyptic theme with the random scrapes and parts that still had very thin black coating.

In progress pics :



Aftermath. Some rolling of the A2 Badger's apex.



Finished result. Not bad for the minimal effort. AFAIK, the wood I was splitting here could not tell that I stripped the coating improperly but I could be wrong.



Fun bit of trivia :

I reprofiled the edge on the ASHBM with a Coarse DMT Diafold to a blended convex, this was almost a decade ago. Not something I'd recommend anyone do in practice but it's good to know you can do it if needed. The technique was to hold the blade steady propped up with the offhand and use the Diafold as a handheld file, it works much the same. It did put a good amount of wear on the diamond plate as it's not really well suited to high contact pressures which are encountered when changing geometry on blades.

 

[cutchu]

My first attempt at stripping. I probably should have experimented on something cheaper. But it turned out ok. Can't see it too well here but it almost has a blued look, but lighter

I didn't try to etch the logo. But I am going to try that at some point on another knife.

 

[Boss1911]

My first attempt at stripping. I probably should have experimented on something cheaper. But it turned out ok. Can't see it too well here but it almost has a blued look, but lighter

I didn't try to etch the logo. But I am going to try that at some point on another knife.

This looks great.

 

[Surfsidemel]

Came out ok. Nice work.

Surfsidemel

 

[grizzle]

Came out good