- Joined
- Dec 18, 2012
- Messages
- 399
Hello All,
In several threads on this forum, I've been asking about and discussing how I may strip my BK5 blade so that it may better fit into it's role in our household and yesterday, my wife and I decided to knock it out. It was simple and literally took me about 30 minutes. I took a few pics and wanted to post them along with a quick tutorial just so everyone else can see just how easy this is.
First off, I will state that I have never stripped the factory coating from a knife or any other steel tool. I've never found the need. They help with corrosion resistance and with the exception of this BK5 that will have a dual role in the kitchen, I have never seen the need or the benefit. I do think that all of the patina photos that people post on these forums are pretty sexy but for me personally, I have always been much more interested in function over form. This BK5 is going to fill more of an all around MAGNUM Camp role if you will and will be doing everything you can imagine on a remote farmstead. From chopping zucchini and skinning rabbits to cleaning fish and making kindling for a fire, this knife will do it all. Because of it's involvement in food prep, I decided to remove the coating from the blade. I guess we are a little hippy like that and I'd rather not consume epoxy particles (or whatever it is) if I can help it.
I used a glass Corninware dish for the work space on top of the coffee table. Do I plan on eating out of it again? Yep. But stripper cleans up with soap and water so I should be good....:thumbup: I cleaned off the blade with some soap and water really fast and wiped it dry. I kind of had to scrub it since I had been batoning with it about an hour earlier. A note about the factory finish: You can see in the photo that a little bit of the finish is chipped off right along the edge. I think this happened because I have been using the knife to baton and then cut limes for margaritas or Caipirinhias and I think some of the acid from the lime juice may have worked it's way under the edge of the finish. This is speculation but it's the only thing I could come up with. Also, the finish in general stood up to batoning much better than on my wife's BK2. I think this probably had something to do with the thickness of the BK2 and the fact that we but it through much more brutal batoning than the BK5.
I picked out a small paintbrush from my kids' art set so that I could be a bit more precise about where the stripping ended. I don't want to strip the coating under the scales because I don't want to have to remove the scales and wipe it dry every time the knife gets wet. Just the edge. I then painted one side of the edge with stripper and coated it on pretty thick. I was surprised to see the coating peeling up after only about 5 minutes.
From there, I carried the knife into the kitchen and ran warm water over the edge while I used my BK11 to scrape the old finish off. It came right up in 90% of the areas that were coated. The other 10% needed a little more convincing that it needed to come off. Still, I just scraped along my BK5 with the BK11 edge and it took it off no probemo. Here's what the blade looked like when I was finished.
Here is a close up of where I stopped stripping. That little paint brush was fairly effective and I didn't see the need to use tape. I have a pretty steady hand though so you might want to use tape if you have the shakes. Either that or drink a couple of shots first to steady your hand.
Total time for this project was about 30 minutes. Maybe a little more. From here on out, I'll be developing a natural patina on this blade and will keep everyone abreast of it. Now time for me to make a custom kydex sheath...
Survivormind
In several threads on this forum, I've been asking about and discussing how I may strip my BK5 blade so that it may better fit into it's role in our household and yesterday, my wife and I decided to knock it out. It was simple and literally took me about 30 minutes. I took a few pics and wanted to post them along with a quick tutorial just so everyone else can see just how easy this is.
First off, I will state that I have never stripped the factory coating from a knife or any other steel tool. I've never found the need. They help with corrosion resistance and with the exception of this BK5 that will have a dual role in the kitchen, I have never seen the need or the benefit. I do think that all of the patina photos that people post on these forums are pretty sexy but for me personally, I have always been much more interested in function over form. This BK5 is going to fill more of an all around MAGNUM Camp role if you will and will be doing everything you can imagine on a remote farmstead. From chopping zucchini and skinning rabbits to cleaning fish and making kindling for a fire, this knife will do it all. Because of it's involvement in food prep, I decided to remove the coating from the blade. I guess we are a little hippy like that and I'd rather not consume epoxy particles (or whatever it is) if I can help it.
I used a glass Corninware dish for the work space on top of the coffee table. Do I plan on eating out of it again? Yep. But stripper cleans up with soap and water so I should be good....:thumbup: I cleaned off the blade with some soap and water really fast and wiped it dry. I kind of had to scrub it since I had been batoning with it about an hour earlier. A note about the factory finish: You can see in the photo that a little bit of the finish is chipped off right along the edge. I think this happened because I have been using the knife to baton and then cut limes for margaritas or Caipirinhias and I think some of the acid from the lime juice may have worked it's way under the edge of the finish. This is speculation but it's the only thing I could come up with. Also, the finish in general stood up to batoning much better than on my wife's BK2. I think this probably had something to do with the thickness of the BK2 and the fact that we but it through much more brutal batoning than the BK5.
I picked out a small paintbrush from my kids' art set so that I could be a bit more precise about where the stripping ended. I don't want to strip the coating under the scales because I don't want to have to remove the scales and wipe it dry every time the knife gets wet. Just the edge. I then painted one side of the edge with stripper and coated it on pretty thick. I was surprised to see the coating peeling up after only about 5 minutes.
From there, I carried the knife into the kitchen and ran warm water over the edge while I used my BK11 to scrape the old finish off. It came right up in 90% of the areas that were coated. The other 10% needed a little more convincing that it needed to come off. Still, I just scraped along my BK5 with the BK11 edge and it took it off no probemo. Here's what the blade looked like when I was finished.
Here is a close up of where I stopped stripping. That little paint brush was fairly effective and I didn't see the need to use tape. I have a pretty steady hand though so you might want to use tape if you have the shakes. Either that or drink a couple of shots first to steady your hand.
Total time for this project was about 30 minutes. Maybe a little more. From here on out, I'll be developing a natural patina on this blade and will keep everyone abreast of it. Now time for me to make a custom kydex sheath...
Survivormind
