To coat or not to coat???

[Nic Ramirez]

IMHO an uncoated or bead blasted blade is very beautiful. But this isn?t a pageant, it's survival! I've looked very closely at the finishes on Chris Reeve blades as well as the "crinkle" coats on Busse and others. I'm looking for the best finish for a moist environment namely Alaska.

The question is:

Is there one vastly superior finish available? Does a certain maker provide the best? Would it be better to get an uncoated blade and take it to a specific aftermarket coater?


Any help would be very appreciated. Thanks

 

[MelancholyMutt]

If corrosion is such a major concern for you, consider a stainless steel blade. There are quite a few high performance stainless steels out there to suit your needs.

 

[alco141]

get a talonite knife, will never corrode, not a chopper though, but will slice like crazy.

alex

 

[Connor]

@Nic Ramirez

The one "vastly superior finish available", corrosion-wise, is a perfect mirror finish. The rougher the surface, the more easy it is for rust to catch on it.

If you use your knife alot in damp/marine environments I would suggest to get a knife with a good stainless steel (e.g. VG-10, CPM-S30V) and a mirror finish. If you really REALLY work in the water most of the time, a teflon/boron-nitride coating might be a good idea, or maybe a diving knife made of a special high-chrome steel.

Otherwise just wipe your knife every now and then with a piece of cloth and some Ballistol (completely non-toxic, approved for machinery in the food industry). This should do the trick.

-Connor

 

[tknife]

I have to chime in really quick. I think rust is a little overrated. If you even take marginal care of your blade. even a simple carbon steel can stand up to many years in a jungle environment. Get whatever knife you want, and buy a couple Tuf Cloths, you'll be good to go. Wipe it down after use, before storage, and don't store in the sheath.

 

[grommit]

I may be thinking of this wrong, so please correct me if needed.

If the blade material is marginal or worse for the environment, so that you are concerned enough to want to coat the sides of the blade to reduce or prevent corrosion, then the knife can not be expected or trusted to have a cutting edge at any time. The edge of the blade has the highest surface area to mass ratio and should corrode faster than any other part of the blade, and you can not really coat it ( unless you get the super hard coting on one side and sharpen the steel to it and the edge itself is actually the edge of the coating itself...)

I am with the other guys. Get a blade metal you do not need to worry about in the given environment and expected task set, get a coating for looks if you want that look. Never expect a coating to make the edge perform better. It could make the knife cut better by changing the friction properties, but will not change the edge proper.

 

[Nic Ramirez]

The edge will mostly be field maintenanced with the inside of a leather belt and/or the edge with a fine ceramic rod.

This question is in reference to the rest of the blade.


I know that this discussion opens up the ol can-o-worms "carbon vs. stainless"

For personal reasons I prefer a higher carbon content. Which brings us back to my current question. Is there a certain ?preferable? aftermarket process (nickel chromium, crinkle) or does it rely too much upon the type of steel?

 

[grommit]

My point is simply that if you expect a certain metal to become unsightly, you should also expect the edge to "slowly" disappear. The only question left is:
Will it take weeks, days, hours or just minutes to make my "freshly" steeled or touched up edge made of metal X to become a flat or group of pits instead of a cutting edge in environment Y?