Tiger Stripes in Gold and Black!

R

Rob Simonich

Big Bear
Joined
Oct 3, 1998
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2,294
Working closely with Darrel Lewis, Ann Spuller and the folks at DB Thin Films and Bodycote we came up with some new interesting stuff! Tyhe gold black one is Titanium Nitride and Boron Carbide coated, and the Grey Black one is Boron Carbide and steel finished. These knives are not for sale nor am I taking orders on them. (Just saving you and me the trouble!) I have had a ball with this project, and thanks to Bodycote and DB Thin films for helping me to develope the process!
 

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Awesome. Just when you think we are running out of ideas to make knives cool:)
 
Hey Rob, perhaps you could just tell us more about that knife pattern? How did you come up with it? What kind of work would you do with it? These questions would be helpful, as I am designing a knife myself and I like the looks of what you have there.
 
Crayola, it is pretty much a pure fighter, handle heavy for that spinning them guys that are good with knives do. 3/16" blade for speed, double guard with blade catchers, smooth handle for easy transitions. Had some input from real operators on this one, the top edge is sharpenable, 3" hollow grind on the top edge.

Thanks Jerry!
 
Those are some nice looking blades Rob. Is the core blade talonite? Is the coating very thick and is it bonded to it or mixed with the surface material? Did they get hot using this process? Is it very durable? Seems like I have heard that both of these coatings will be quite durable and make it very hard.

I bet it was a lot of fun getting them to come out like you wanted them to. Could you color the titanium nitride the same way you can regular titanium? That would really be something to look at.

Keep up the great work Rob, it keeps the rest of us on our toes :).
 
Glad you like it Ray! The blade material on these is 154cm but will work the same on talonite. The coatings are molecularly bonded to the steel and will not peel off, the TIN coating (gold) is the same as on the drill bits. The Boron Carbide coating is much harder than the TIN. The black grey knife was actually stabbed into sandy soil several times and then reblasted with no wear on the Boron I could see, the reblasted blade looked like new. All in all a very wear resistant combo. The temp during coating if I recall correctly is about 220 far. No hardness loss due to heat. Darrel can correct any mistakes here!

I dont believe one could anodize the TIN coating, but I dont know for sure. It certainly has been a lot of fun doing these coatings, and there is some practical applications for them as well.

:)

Ill have pics of the Gold Flame job here in the next few days!
 
Thanks Rob. I was looking at some other types of nitriding the other night on the net and I think most of it was very involved and was done at about 700 deg. or so. Maybe even more because when I saw that, I lost interest. Looks like you have a winner. I would say, "run with it". What would it cost to put on a 52100 blade of the same size? With maybe "lightening bolts", arrows, or even your buffalo sign :). Lots of possibilities I see.
 
Rob,

The gold and black stripes are awesome. If you are not taking orders for these, it make me even happier to have purchased the other stripy prototype from the boys at TAD.

Please keep up the good work.

Regards,

Ed
 
Rob,

These knives are just awesome, but I expect no less from you, and you don't disappoint!

Thanks for sharing these with us!
 
Rob, you are correct the coating temp is about 240F much
lower the tempering range on all steels. There is no way to anodize
Titaniue Nitride because we have already reacted it with nitrogen
to form (Tin).But one thing I always wanted to try is to evaporate
pure Titanium on a steel blade and then Anodize the titanium thats
been deposited.Sounds like a new R&D project to work on in the future.

This has been a real fun project for Rob and I to and look forward to working with again soon.

Darrell Lewis

Dlewis@bodycote-na.com



YOU MAKE IF FIRST-WE MAKE IT LAST
 
Thanks everyone! I cant begin to tell you how much fun this has been, and continues to be, maybe tri color next! Here is a picture of 3 blades together, the flame one does not have handles yet, but it is a good picture of the coating, thanks for cleaning it up for me Dogman!
 

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ROB,Three different coatings are not out of our reach.
This is the first time ever that masking to this extent
has ever been achieved depositing both Titanium Nitride
and Boron Carbide (PVD). It now opens the door for Multi Layer
and Multi Colored coatings. I see in the near future using
combinations Of Titanium,Chromium,Boron,and Diamond or DLC.
It's been a BLAST!!!


Darrell
Dlewis@bodycote-na.com



YOU MAKE IT FIRST-WE MAKE IT LAST
 
ROB,Three different coatings are not out of our reach.
This is the first time ever that masking to this extent
has ever been achieved depositing both Titanium Nitride
and Boron Carbide (PVD). It now opens the door for Multi Layer
and Multi Colored coatings. I see in the near future using
combinations Of Titanium,Chromium,Boron,and Diamond or DLC.
It's been a BLAST!!! The possibilities are only limited by
you the knife makers.



Darrell
Dlewis@bodycote-na.com



YOU MAKE IT FIRST-WE MAKE IT LAST
 
The flame pattern ROCKS! Someone make me a fighter with this pattern and coating. Give me an e-mail and we can discuss details. -Dick
 
Wayyyyy cool, Rob--even the exposed tang at the pommel is striped!!:) This is definitely a "wave of the future--now!!' kind of thing.
 
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