Stripping and refinishing my Camp Tramp - a work in progress

wildmanh

wildmanh

Part time Leather Bender/Sheath maker
Joined
Jul 9, 2000
Messages
7,764
This afternoon I desided to strip the coating off of my Camp Tramp and change the finish.

The plan is to remove the coating, see what kind of finish is underneath and give it a new finish. I'm documenting this attempt so I made sure to take pictures. :)

First off I wrapped the CT's blade in paper towels and soaked the towels in paint stripper. Then I wrapped that in plastic wrap. This probably isn't the best way to do it, but it's what I had to work with. Will be leaving it over night then tomorrow I'll unwrap the CT and see if I can scrape off the coating.
 
Here is what the CT looked like before I soaked it:

ct_12.jpg


ct_13.jpg
 
Here is the CT soaking in the paint thinner:

ct_14.jpg


Now, to let the knife soak overnight and see what happens in the morning.
 
Heber....Did you use paint thinner...or paint stripper??Thinner won't work...Stripper will.After soaking overnight the coating should soften rite up and come off with a plastic scraper.The coating came off my HR with no problem whatsoever.The flats of the knife should have a dimpled look to it and the grind may have some griner marks that will clean up with a fine grit paper.Also...the CT is differetially treated so you should find a nice Hamon line....kind of like on a Japanese sword....only without the wave patterns.
 
Originally posted by viking313
Heber....Did you use paint thinner...or paint stripper??Thinner won't work...Stripper will.After soaking overnight the coating should soften rite up and come off with a plastic scraper.The coating came off my HR with no problem whatsoever.The flats of the knife should have a dimpled look to it and the grind may have some griner marks that will clean up with a fine grit paper.Also...the CT is differetially treated so you should find a nice Hamon line....kind of like on a Japanese sword....only without the wave patterns.
Click to expand...

James, I used Acetone. Think that will work? On the bottle it says "Fast Drying solvent for epoxy, resins, inks, adhesives and contact cement".

BTW thanks for the info on stripping off the coating. Should be quite interesting. I can't wait to see what the steel looks like underneath.
 
Heber....the stuff I used was Crown R-3 SemiPaste Paint Remover.It contains:Methylene Chloride,toluene and alchohols.Acetone has more vapor....ie might seem to be more caustic....and may soften the finish enough to remove it,its not as potent as the other stuff,but if not try to find something that contains the ingrediants above.Also hope that you can get some picts up of that CT if the finish does come off....you have me thinking of doing that to mine now!!!LOL:D
 
Originally posted by viking313
Heber....the stuff I used was Crown R-3 SemiPaste Paint Remover.It contains:Methylene Chloride,toluene and alchohols.Acetone has more vapor....ie might seem to be more caustic....and may soften the finish enough to remove it,its not as potent as the other stuff,but if not try to find something that contains the ingrediants above.Also hope that you can get some picts up of that CT if the finish does come off....you have me thinking of doing that to mine now!!!LOL:D
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James, Acetone works!:D And the steel underneath looks great. Friking cool!:eek::D:D

The outer layer of the coating just wrinkled up and came off. Now I'm scraping off the inner layer. I forgot to soak one side of the blade, so it is soaking now. Don't worry, after the right side finishes soaking, I'll post more pics. This blade is looking Sweet!
 
I just finished stripping off the black coating and the blade looks great. After scraping off the coating I noticed a cool looking temper line (or should I say Lines - pics to follow). There is a picture in the picture archive showing the temper line on the CT. It can be seen "Here". That pic does not look like mine at all. Here is mine:

naked_01.jpg


naked_05.jpg


As you can see, the Acetone brought out a lot of different colors, almost a rainbow affect. The Steels finish is rough, but the temper lines more than make up for that. There apears to be a number of temper lines close to each other. I'm not sure why that is, my only guess would be the steel changes color the softer it gets. Anyone know?
 
Here are some more pics of my Naked CT:



naked_02.jpg


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If you look closely at the spine, you can see the temper lines there too:
naked_07.jpg
 
Heber.....That looks really great!!!! Glad the Acetone worked....that temper line really looks cool....I bet it will look realy sweet when you get around to refinishing it with a sand paper.Just remember to buff in only one direction as you go finer to give a uniform finish.
 
Originally posted by biogon
Any idea what those funny engraving scratches are on the reverse (right) side?

-j
Click to expand...

The funny looking marks apear to be grind marks of some sort. They are on both sides of the blade. Here are some pics:

naked_08.jpg


naked_09.jpg
 
Originally posted by viking313
Heber.....That looks really great!!!! Glad the Acetone worked....that temper line really looks cool....I bet it will look realy sweet when you get around to refinishing it with a sand paper.Just remember to buff in only one direction as you go finer to give a uniform finish.
Click to expand...

After reading your post, I grabbed some masking tape, 150 grit wet dry sand paper, and some oil. Then I tapped up the flats, coated the bevels with oil and started sanding the knife.

Now the blade has a nice contrast to it. The bevels are satin with the temperline slightly visable and the flats are rough. Next, I think I'll try to patina the bevels again to try and get some of the color back. The rainbow effect was really cool. Much better in person of course.;)



naked_11.jpg


the darker gray area on the blade are finger prints.:o
naked_12.jpg
 
Great work!

That is a really nice looking knife -- better than before.

Now i am tempted to get myself a CT too.

Sigh.

:)

-jon
 
Here are a few pics, I took just for fun.:)


naked_17.jpg


naked_18.jpg


naked_19.jpg


naked_20.jpg



Now that I have refinished this knife, I like it a whole lot better. The blade has a nice smooth feel to it and slides in and out of the sheath better. Plus, it reminds me more of traditional camp knife now instead of a "Tactical" knife. :)
 
Great work!

That is a really nice looking knife -- better than before.

Now i am tempted to get myself a CT too.

Sigh.

:)

-jon
 
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