Thrashed my new Dozier Bobcat this morning...

S

ScoJo

Joined
Feb 2, 2009
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39
My new Ka-Bar came in handy this morning in a tree planting community project - cutting trees out of plastic tubs and burlap bags.

I love this knife, but I hate the black blade coating. As you can imagine, the coating is thoroughly trashed and the knife now looks like crap.

Has anyone sanded a finish like this completely off? How did you do it? I need to take the knife apart to clean the dirt and mud out of it anyway.
 
I kind of like it when the black coating comes off my knives. Makes them look broken in and adds some "flava" or character. I understand your point though.
 
AUS8 shines up nicely. Stripper and Scotchbrite should do the trick.
Various grits of wet/dry to get the shine you wish.

Good value blade!
 
Les - what are you referring to as a stripper? Is there a solvent I can use to get the finish off? That would make my life easier. Was thinking I'd need to sand it off, but wasn't sure how I was going to do the thumb stud.
 
Spray can stripper, wrap in plastic, allow it to work.
Then, polish as desired.
 
Funny stuff that black coating isn't it? I have a Sog Aegis that I use everyday, albeit cutting mostly cardboard boxes and such at my job and I also have an Emerson La Griffe. The Aegis black is not coming off at all and pretty much looks like new which is totally amazing actually. The Emerson on the other hand the black started coming off after about the 4 or 5th cut. I personally don't mind as I like the look of a blade that looks like a user. I was looking at the Dozier Bobcats and quite like the look of the folder and the price certainly seems good. A little bit heavy for edc for me though.
 
A lot depends on what type of black coating is used. SOG uses a TiNi coating, which seems to be fairly hard. The Benchmade BK1 coating is also a hard coating, while their BT coating is not. There are several companies going with a DLC coating, Diamond Like Carbon, that has a Rockwell rating in the 70's or low 80's. This stuff does not scratch up like the softer coatings do. When it seems to show wear, it is usually not the coating that is wearing, rather it is what you are cutting that wears off onto the coating! Good stuff.:thumbup:

Btw, I have a Bobcat, but haven't really used it much, but have observed that the coating "looks" soft. I think stripping and sanding would really look good if done correctly.
 
Picked up a can of stripper at the local Ace Hardware. Seems to be working well. I took the whole thing apart and am getting rid of all the black finish, including the liners, etc.

I wonder if I'll hate this thing when it's done.

The black coating on the Bobcat IS very soft, though - I can attest to that!
 
Here are the pictures from my little project. First, the Bobcat after a couple hours of use planting trees:

Knife1.jpg


Knife2.jpg
 
Now, a few after I stripped the blade, liners, lock bar, and clip:

Knife3.jpg


Knife4.jpg


Knife5.jpg


Marks on the blade in the second photo are fingerprints. Oops!
 
A little polishing with 600 and 800 grit paper, then ran over it with some red tripoli on a buffing wheel.
 
Oh, man, that knife looks a hundred percent better stripped. :D
You did a great job polishing it up!
 
That's a case of "looking better than new"...Nice job!.:thumbup:.:thumbup:.
 
Thanks for the comments. I held off buying a Cold Steel Recon 1 at a gun show because the coating looked weak. I like black blades, but not when they paint them over like that. The Bobcat was just like the Cold Steel in that respect, but I didn't realize it until it came in the mail.
 
Good looking knife. I wish Kabar offered it in a satin finished version. I'm not big on the black blade coating either.
 
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