Why do you all remove the coating?

M

ml100

Joined
Jul 19, 2005
Messages
766
Yes, I know, not all of you. But I see so many pics here with Beckers having the coating removed. Is that some type of Beckerhead sports?
 
1. Some people don't like the extra friction
2. Once you've used your knife a few times, the coating gets pretty beat up and doesn't look all that hot nor does it protect the blade much any more
3. We love, love, love to look at factory grind marks
4. You can do a lot of cool mods to a stripped Becker. Etches, patinas, etc
 
Beckerhead sports?! Ha, they consist of more blood and bruised egos! Lol, no some do it for less resistance during cutting/batoning, aesthetics or even for fear of tainting food during food prep. It can also be viewed as a way of making the knife yours.
 
Because you can't trust a coated blade...It could be hiding secrets.

I'm just beating mine to hell until it strips itself.
 
I don't know what the coating is, and I use every single one of my knives for food prep. So coating has to go.

The looks I get for running around with a BK-2 are strange enough (people aren't used to seeing large knives around here), so I stripped mine to make it less "tactical/evil/all-black" looking.
 
I like to mod. My first one was a bk2 I got in a traded where the guy made like faint tiger stripes on the blade using some sort of stripper I guess. I didn't like it so off the coating came and I was hooked on modding my blades and making them how I wanted them. and the rest is history
 
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I initially stripped mine because I was adding jimping on the spine, and that was going to remove some of the coating, and I didn't want it to look goofy. Once I did that, though, I was hooked, because Beckers look great nekkid!
 
I haven't stripped mine yet, but after some hard use, the coating is starting to look not as great... I've actually been considering leaving the coating on for a while, but starting to blue it where it comes off. I think that could end up looking really nice. And if all else fails, I'll just strip the blade and blue it.

Also, for some reason it seems like black knives = scary, and not-black knives = not so scary. So I could see myself stripping it for that purpose as well.
 
maethor said:
Exactly my point, good to hear that I'm not alone.
Click to expand...

Yea, its weird how this works... black knives seem to be considered weapons, while non-black knives are apparently tools. The same thing might be said for folders with serrations too for some reason...

Anyway, I've been considering stripping my BK2, because I really seem to like the blued blades. Makes them look more "classy", while still protecting them.
 
All of the above, are reasons for me.

I think knives should be naked, I mean, blade coatings are a new thing for knives, and by new, I mean in the last 40yrs. Knives and steel has been around for a long, long time, and paint is just not natural on a blade. That's my take.

Moose
 
On my BK9, I just finished the job that using it for several years started.

DSCF3237-1.jpg


Same knife after a few hours work:

DSCF3448.jpg


I also found that stripping it noticeably helped make it more "slippery" batoning through wood.

On my newest BK2, I really didn't have any plans to strip or polish it when I ordered it, but I did plan on trying my hand at putting a convex edge on it. The 2 has a saber grind, which means the blade has a steady bevel angle ground on each side from the top of the grind down to the edge, and the hand-sanding technique I used for convexing, lent itself to laying the blade flat on a leather strop mounted on a piece of board and wrapped with wet/dry sandpaper, and then applying a circular motion and pressure. I didn't "strip" that blade as much as just lost the coating to the technique I used to convex it, but it came out looking better than I could've ever imagined even if I had planned on doing it.

DSCF3710.jpg


There are functional, as well as aesthetic, reasons to strip and/or polish a blade. Polishing is just a hair below coating in resisting rust. I haven't seen so much as a speck of rust on either of mine that I've polished. I do coat the 9 with oil because it's only polished to a satin finish, but the 2 I haven't put anything on its mirrored finish at all, and still have never seen any sign of rust.

But hey, it's all about personal preference. If someone likes how my 9 looked before I stripped and polished it, cool man. There is no right or wrong thing to do in this regard, as long as you do to your knives what you want to do, even if it's nothing.

Blues
 
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maethor said:
I don't know what the coating is, and I use every single one of my knives for food prep. So coating has to go.

The looks I get for running around with a BK-2 are strange enough (people aren't used to seeing large knives around here), so I stripped mine to make it less "tactical/evil/all-black" looking.
Click to expand...

Ditto. I'm not neurotic about a lot of things but if I don't know what I'm putting into my body it's no go. It's the only body I got so I might as well take care of it.

Edit: Also my san mai 11 gets by far less concerned looks from people as my black 11.
 
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