Video: blade coatings tested! DLC, Cerakote, Satin, WCC & CrN go head-to-head...

aarongough

aarongough

Joined
Mar 12, 2013
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1,167
Hey guys!
I originally posted this in the maker forum, but I think it's something that a lot of knife users/collectors will enjoy seeing as well!

I've been wanting to do a round of head-to-head testing on a bunch of different blade coatings for a while, and earlier this year I was finally able to do it! It took ages to finish the video because I've been so busy, but it's finally done!

Overall I tested 6 coatings/blade-finishes:

1) DLC - Diamond Like Carbon, a thin film of vacuum deposited amorphous diamond.
2) Cerakote - A 2 part epoxy coating that's sprayed onto the blades. Originally invented for use on firearms.
3) CrN - Chromium Nitride, a thin layer of nitrided chrome vacuum deposited onto the blades.
4) WCC - Tungsten Carbide Carbon, a coating that's a competitor of DLC, often used on injection molds in Europe, but not seen as much in North America.
5) WCC + CrN - A dual layer coating with CrN as the underlayer and WCC as the top layer.
6) Satin A2 - A hand-rubbed 600 grit satin finish on A2 tool steel (mainly for comparison).

You guys are all likely familiar with Cerakote, DLC and Satin finishes, but I found a few extras that I wanted to try as alternatives, and I still have a few that I'd like to try in the future, including low-phosphorous electroless nickel plating (possibly as an undercoat for the DLC which would be fun!)

To compare the coatings I did a variety of tests:

1) Cutting 400 linear feet of double-wall corrugated cardboard with each blade
2) Wood-carving with each blade
3) Splitting dry hardwood with each blade (poplar and mahogany)
4) Each blade stripped of any oil and wrapped in wet towels for 48 hours
5) Each blade lightly oiled (with mineral oil) wrapped in wet towels 144 hours

All of the blades were made from A2 tool steel, heat-treated to 62.5HRC.

Without further ado, here's the video showing the full testing!

[video=youtube;s6cKjbDToXU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6cKjbDToXU[/video]

I was really impressed with how the DLC coating fared... Seeing a coated blade out-perform a satin finished blade in wear testing was fairly novel, and not at all what I expected! I figured the satin blade would do the best in wear testing and then not so well in the corrosion tests, but as you saw that was not the case at all!

If you guys have any questions about the coatings or any part of the testing/application process please let me know! Obviously I love chatting about this stuff, so be warned I may talk your ears off about it :)

-Aaron
 
I am very shocked and impressed with DLC. I have heard a lot of people say that it does nothing for corrosion resistance because of how thin the applied layer is, but that is apparently not the case at all! Really interesting results! So you are going to give those test blade away, right ;)
 
Awesome Aaron, thanks for posting this.

Love your videos too, btw!
 
dkb45 said:
I am very shocked and impressed with DLC. I have heard a lot of people say that it does nothing for corrosion resistance because of how thin the applied layer is, but that is apparently not the case at all! Really interesting results! So you are going to give those test blade away, right ;)
Click to expand...

Yeah I was pretty surprised myself! It was interesting that some rust came through the coating (when it was un-oiled) but that the rust then cleaned off and basically did not leave any marks afterward, I found that quite surprising!

The matte surface texture of the blade combined with DLC coating seems to hold onto any oil much better than a satin finish does, which means that the practical corrosion resistance of the coating is pretty good. I recently went camping with my user knife, split wood with it, used it to eat a steak, wiped it in the snow and then put it back in the sheath wet... Left it like that in my bag for more than a week before taking it out with no rust marks on the blade, just a tiny bit along the un-coated edge. A raw A2 blade would be showing definite surface rust after that kind of treatment, regardless of whether you'd oiled the blade or not.

EDIT: I definitely think that a mirror finished blade with DLC coating would behave differently... I'm not sure the corrosion resistance would be as good, because it won't hold onto oil the same way. That might be a test I need to do in the future!
 
Great job Aaron!! One thing tho......that shop is waaaaay to clean brother! OCD much??
[emoji51]
I have a bunch of Golden Spydies with DLC and have found that is one tough coating!!
Joe
 
I've always babied the DLC knives, guess I probably shouldn't. This was a topic that I've wondered a lot about recently. This video was timely.
 
Aaron,

Way to go man !
Thank you sooooo much for putting this up.

One question : how did the various coatings do, but I am especially interested in the DLC, in the amount if any friction reduction by the blades being coated ? As I understand it the big deal about DLC is that it is really a low friction surface ESPECIALLY when it comes to two DLC coated parts moving across each other.

I have also heard, when it comes to knives, that the coating causes MORE friction than a polished blade would have.

Take care,
Keep up the good work,
Looking forward to more videos.

PS : I have spent a great deal of time cutting wood with plane blades made of A-2 through very hard wood so this is particularly interesting for me.
 
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That was an awesome video man. Thanks for the work you put into it.
 
Slauterhause said:
Awesome Aaron, thanks for posting this.

Love your videos too, btw!
Click to expand...

Slauterhause said:
I've always babied the DLC knives, guess I probably shouldn't. This was a topic that I've wondered a lot about recently. This video was timely.
Click to expand...

Thanks mate! Yeah from what I've seen DLC does not need to be babied in the slightest... I've even taken the end of a file and scratched it across the DLC coating. It leaves a silver mark but that's actually the metal from the file rubbing off onto the coating! A little cleaning with Autosol takes the silver mark off and leaves a largely untouched coating. It's pretty nuts stuff!
 
palonej said:
Great job Aaron!! One thing tho......that shop is waaaaay to clean brother! OCD much??
[emoji51]
I have a bunch of Golden Spydies with DLC and have found that is one tough coating!!
Joe
Click to expand...

Haha, yeah maybe a little bit Joe :)

My first experience with DLC was actually on a Spyderco Manix II, I bought it specifically with the idea of testing the coating and I was so impressed with it that I put a lot of work into getting that coating for my own knives! After testing to make sure the wasn't something better of course :)
 
Great test and I have found exactly the same results with my use of DLC coated blades......Spydie, Microtech & Pro Tech.
Again, excellent job on the test and thank you for sharing your results with us Aaron!!
Joe
 
Wowbagger said:
Aaron,

Way to go man !
Thank you sooooo much for putting this up.

One question : how did the various coatings do, but I am especially interested in the DLC, in the amount if any friction reduction by the blades being coated ? As I understand it the big deal about DLC is that it is really a low friction surface ESPECIALLY when it comes to two DLC coated parts moving across each other.

I have also heard, when it comes to knives, that the coating causes MORE friction than a polished blade would have.

Take care,
Keep up the good work,
Looking forward to more videos.

PS : I have spent a great deal of time cutting wood with plane blades made of A-2 through very hard wood so this is particularly interesting for me.
Click to expand...

Hey mate!
The friction of the coating largely depends on the surface prep from what I've seen... If the blade is roughly sandblasted it will be very grabby, it's it polished it will act like it's polished. The DLC coating probably reduces friction a little, but it's not a noticeable amount as far as I can tell.

I prep my blades by blasting them with a 50/50 mix of 120 grit aluminum oxide and 60 mesh glass beads, this leaves a matte finish that feels 'silky', almost exactly like how the trackpad on a Macbook feels actually. This doesn't seem to negatively affect the performance of the blades when cutting, testing between the matte blades and a satin blade felt the same to me.

-A
 
I've never been a fan of coatings, until now.
Well, at least one coating.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 
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