why no black finish on spydercos

G

grinder

Joined
Feb 23, 2002
Messages
5
Hi all,

thanks for all your replies on the hannibal query. I'm a

prop maker by trade and knife collector, hence my interest

in hannibal's knife of choice. Here's my other question:

why has spyderco not made any blades in a black finish?

Have I missed one or two? There must be a reason.

It would seem to be a logical choice to offer most of the

models in a black T type finish. Any thoughts gang?

all my best, grinder.
 
There was a black bladed Military in the past. Spyderco was not pleased with the performance of the coating (IIRC) so they yanked it.

Today, you can get a Lum Tanto folder with a black blade. I guess Spyderco found a new coating they were more pleased with. It's in current production.

I'm sure there have been others, but those are the two off the top of my head.
 
Endura and Delica were also made with black coatings on the blades at one time.


You could probably send the Harpy in some where to get a black finish put on the blade, but what are you going to do about that shiny handle? ;) :p
 
I've seen Police Models, Military's, Enduras, Delicas, Workers and Mariners that were black coated.
I currently have an old model, non vented Mariner with the black finish.

recoil
 
Hi Grinder. I believe that Spyderco was the first company to make black nives. The first back in the late 80's. We used Titanium Carbo-nitride fron Darrel Lewis. We have worked with Darrel on a number of coatings. We made "Workers", Mariners, Harpy's, Police back then. Since then we've done Enduras, Delicas and a few odds & ends.

We've also done black coatings in about 5+ other methods.

Some are better than others. In time them come off and many customers complain and think that the company should recoat as part of a warrantee, which is not possible.

We currently have one that we're making (Lum Tanto folder). We're also looking a Darrel's new Boron Carbide coating, which I'll probably try on something. Haven't decide what yet. Any suggestions?

sal
 
Sal Glesser,
A Spyderco Chinese Folder with a blue almite handle finish and a Boron Carbide coating on the blade would look stunning. Also i think the inlaid Vesuvius would be a good piece to try it out on.
 
Black coatings, I can do without. They add to the price, and knives cost enough as it is. Also, cost aside, I don't want them or need them, especially on a stainless blade.
 
Hi Carlos. Are you settled in? I'd like to see one as well. I'll see if I can rustle up some samples for Darrel to play with. We'll have to bead blast prior to coating. I'm not interesting in the labor intesive polishing required to get the "glossy" finish.

sal
 
Hi Sal,

Thank you for your response to my question. If you don't mind I

have another. Would you say the Boron black finish is better or

tougher than the black T type that Benchmade uses? Or is

there some other new type finishes that might be even better?

Do you anticipate offering the black finish on all of your

knives once you find one that your'e satisfied with?

Thanks for your time and keep making those great knives!

Sincerly, grinder.
 
I'm not Sal, but I can answer your question.

The Boron Carbide coating is many, many, many times better than the black coating that benchmade puts on their knives.

Jeff
 
Originally posted by Carlos
I'd like a Boron-coated titanium Salsa.
Click to expand...

I'm very interested in this, and wonder if coating the handle scales as well would be part of the process. I think it would be a big advantage to keep the titanium from scratching. In fact, I am not interested in having the blade coated, as the BC1 coating isn't corrosion preventative and it seems that a hard chroming is needed to prevent rust from developing.
 
In our own testing, we found that the Boron Carbide coating did in fact offer a corrosion resistance factor of 100%. The BC coated Spydercards held up twice as long as the non BC coated Spydercards.

We tried Black T and have decided to avoid that particular coating.

On the Titan handle for the Salsa, I'm also thinking that it might reduce scratching of the Titan because it is quite hard.

The real advantage to BC is that it is a low temp process. Coatings like Titanium carbi-nitride and Black T are hot enough to re-temper most steels. 154CM and ATS-34 are high moly steels. High moly was created to prevent "high temperature creep" which occured in the jet turbines. Most knife steels do not get that hot, so the high moly is not as importnt in knife steels. It does however create a very high tempering temperature which is not affected by high temp coatings like Titanium carbo-nitride.

sal
 
A run of BC coated L'il Temps would be nice. The green handles with the black blades would look great.

Hey, V-1...Have you sent off your LT yet?
 
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