Ubiquitous blade coatings

T

Talos

Joined
Aug 1, 2004
Messages
137
I have to say I'm a little dissapointed/mystified by the trend over the last few years for coating knife blades. I can understand the need in military and special ops, etc.,but I'm guessing most of us are using our knives for more mundane stuff where giving away your position to the bad guys is not a big concern. To me the first thing that attracts me to a knife is the shape and finish of the blade. Black coated blades ruin the look and after a lot of use will look like crap. Check out this link for a good example of what I'm talking about. http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/knives/camp_tramp.html
The SWNW knifes meet my criteria for blade shape, especially the Camp Tramp but it's black coated, which I especially don't understand as it's advertised as a camp knife, hence the name! Think of what a beauty it would be with a satin or polished blade. Same for the Becker knives. The Bk9 with a polished or bead blasted blade would be awesome.
I understand the coating wiil protect the blade from rust but, hell, so will an occasional wipe with a rag and some oil or a Tuff Cloth.
 
Well, many people enjoy putting in several hours of work to strip off the coatings and polish the blades of their Beckers, Swamp Rats, etc. If you check out the various manufacturers' forums for the brands you're interested in you can find pics of satin-finished blades. I think Swamp Rat is releasing some satin Camp Tramps, but I don't know if they're still available. I prefer a coating on carbon steel blades for ease of maintenance, and try not to worry too much about appearance. For me, knives are tools first and aesthetic objects second. I love the mirror finish on HI khukris, though.

Jeremy
 
I'm guessing that for most people that aethetics is a very important consideration in what appeals to them in a knife. Hammers are tools first, too, but as far as I know there aren't any hammer forums.
I e-mailed SRKW about a week ago asking about a satin Camp Tramp and was told they don't make them. There is a post about a satin Battle Rat on their forum and I have inquired about that but have not received an answer.
 
The coatings provide some degree of rust protection, but their main purpose is to keep manufacturing costs down.
If you think about it, a relatively high percentage of the total time spent in making an average production medium to large fixed blade knife is in cosmetics. If you don't need to polish the blade to make it look pretty, or cover up a rough finish, then you don't spend as much manpower on it & it costs you less to make, which also means you can sell it for less, and you no longer need to hire a competent polisher. The basic function of the blade is not impaired, and it costs less to buy at the consumer end.
Look at the Cold Steel Trailmaster.
Ten years ago I bought one for a buddy when they still made them with a "bare naked" blade at much more than what I paid for the recent black-bladed Trailmaster I got for myself. That's an unusual trend in most consumer items, prices usually go up or quality goes down. But, same knife, same performance (assuming it was the same formulation of "Carbon V" steel), just not as nice to look at & not as expensive to buy.
Denis
 
I had a feeling that cost might have something to do with it.
Most of the knives with coatings are on the more affordable side of the scale.
 
There is a post on the Swamp Rat forum about satin Camp Tramps, but I have no idea if any are to be produced. It's too bad- a satin Tramp would be great.

Jeremy

Edit- never mind. Sleep deprivation breeds confusion resulting in erroneous posts. Sorry.

Jeremy
 
's ok,man, but I am with you, a Satin Camp Tramp would be beautiful and I bet SRKW would sell a lot more knives if they made it an option, (Becker, too) even if it would cost more. It is what keeps me from buying one. Right now I am kinda liking what I see in the Entrek line, Especially the Bison. http://www.1sks.com/images/entrek/en-bison.jpg
It's alot of knife for the money.
 
I think that it's unfair to characterize most blade coatings as for having "military" appeal. I prefer carbon steel blades, and love having a coating for rust protection. I've heard horror stories of folks peaking underneath a handle to find rust chewing happily through their tang. I really like having a coated blade knowing that this won't happen.

As for looks, half the time I like a nice uncoated satin finish, half the time a coating. So when you factor all of that and then remember that coated blades are cheaper, it's no wonder that they are popular.
 
I wasn't intending to be "unfair" in my comment about the military use for coatings,and can understand that it protects the blade from the elements. I have a Cold Steel Recon Tanto and kinda like it,(but just kinda). Just a personal preference for uncoated blades and a bit of frustration that some of the more affordable highly regarded knives are only offered coated which,as Denis explained very well is why they are affordable. I understand that, now.
BTW go to the SRKW's forum and any mention of a satin model gets people pretty excited.
I am in the market for a 10" (or so) camp knife and don't want to pay more than about $150.00. The few choices there are for good knives in that category based on forum member opinions, like the Camp Tramp, BK9, Randall RTAK,again, are all coated. The only other knives that aren't coated that fit the bill are much more expensive. Guess I need to either get over it or shell out the extra bucks. But you know, when hard earned money is shelled out to buy something it's tough to make comprimises, even if it's only involving how something looks. Imagine going out to buy a car and discovering that the one you really had set your heart on only came in ________(fill in the blank for your least favorite color).
 
Talos, I understand your frustration,
but why not just remove the coating and polish the knife up yourself.
It takes a little time and elbow grease, but it's not tough.
 
Might have to do that. I read on a post somewhere about bead blasting the coating off.
 
I don't know how you feel about it,
but to me it's definately worth saving $50 or more.
(Busse charges $45 for a Satin finish)
 
If they somehow colored the steel black it would not be an issue with me. The problems are sharpening and coating damage. You have to be very careful when you sharpen coated blades to keep a neat edge bevel or it looks like it has been done by an amateur. Any time you use the blade on something harder than meat and vegetables you scratch the coating. I'd rather let the blade develope a natural patina.
 
I'm surprised that the cost of creating a satin finish on a blade would be so high. I would have guessed that applying a coating would be a more expensive process. Correct me if I'm wrong but a satin finish is probably done using a bead blaster, which I would think would be an easy and fast process. But I'll be the first to admit I know next to nothing about any aspect of knife making.
Jeff also makes a good point about about messing up the coating when sharpening the blade. I haven't tried to sharpen my Recon Tanto. Might be tough to do and keep it looking clean.
CRKT makes some of their folders with a black hard anodized coating.
 
Trust me, satin finished Beckers and Swamp Rats would be much more labor-intensive and expensive than their coated counterparts. The steel these knives are made of is not precision or surface ground. If you strip the coating you'll see that flats are covered with gouges, pits, and nicks. To make it suitable for a satin finish, it needs to be surface ground, removing as much as 0.015" per side. Your 0.250" just became 0.220", so if you want to end up with 0.250" you need to start with 0.280". Preparing precision ground stock alone is time-consuming and expensive.

For a coated knife, the grinds can be done with a rough grit and left that way. Satin finishes need more passes through the grinder as well as much stricter QC without the coating to hide things. It's not a simple matter of beadblasting to produce a satin finish, either. In fact, some beadblasted finishes are done after the knife has been brought up to a satin finish.

Finally, there is the issue of rust and warranties. Sell a satin finish, high carbon steel production knife and you WILL get customers sending their rusted knives back for warranty service. Even worse, the knife may rust under the handle without the user knowing it. Some people will even send theirs back because the satin finish became discolored with use. Those warranty costs just get tacked on to the price of the knife.

The satin SRKW Battle Rat was offered for $50 more than the coated version, just to give you an idea.
 
Thanks, SteelDriver,(and Dpris, and everyone else who responded to my post), for the enlightenment. I may not be crazy about black coated blades still, but I can now sure appreciate why it's done.
Great forum. Glad I joined.
 
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