Is there anything that is effective in touching up the black coating on a Benchmade knife blade?

I have a fairly new 581BK that is already scratched from use.

Jim Lucier

Wear is inevitable on any user. I would advise against attempting to touch up the coating on a blade. I say just leave it the way it is, a little wear adds character IMO. If it bothers you that much I would just send it in and have the blade replaced with a satin blade. It should only cost you 25.00 + shipping. For a user I prefer the satin blades. It will show the less amount of wear over a extended period of use.

You can use a Sharpie but it leaves a shine where you touched up. The best thing is to replace it with a satin blade as Shadow suggested.

I don't buy coated versions by choice, unless there's no other option, as would be the case of the high carbon M2 or M4 bladed models.

Nothing else in the steel lineup requires any protection other than regular cleaning with your favorite, mine for example, being Tuf-Glide.

As Shadow says, there's no way to repair scratches in the coating. Live with it, strip it off, or buy satin finished models, which are a lot easier to keep good looking.

quote:

Originally posted by jim Lucier:
Is there anything that is effective in touching up the black coating on a Benchmade knife blade?

I have a fairly new 581BK that is already scratched from use.

Jim Lucier

What in the world did you do to scratch CeraKote??

quote:

What in the world did you do to scratch CeraKote??

A lot of times material you're cutting will leave marks on the blade that look just like scratches, but a little Flitz and gentle TLC will remove that residue right off (at least that was my experience with few ZT blades)

quote:

Originally posted by RxEnergy:

quote:

What in the world did you do to scratch CeraKote??

A lot of times material you're cutting will leave marks on the blade that look just like scratches, but a little Flitz and gentle TLC will remove that residue right off (at least that was my experience with few ZT blades)

leaving marks is different from scratches, which is why I was surprised that he said he had scratches. Scratching CeraKote is very hard to do.

Gentlemen,

These are definitely scratches near the tip leading up from the cutting edge. I have verified with a 10X loupe. I would post pictures if my wife didn't taken the good camera to visit the grandkids. The toughest thing I remember cutting is heavy cardboard which is why I am disappointed in the scratching.

Jim Lucier

quote:

Originally posted by jim Lucier:
Gentlemen,

These are definitely scratches near the tip leading up from the cutting edge. I have verified with a 10X loupe. I would post pictures if my wife didn't taken the good camera to visit the grandkids. The toughest thing I remember cutting is heavy cardboard which is why I am disappointed in the scratching.

Jim Lucier

Hmm... I wonder if you got one of the coated blades that was made before they switched to CeraKote. The previous BK coating was not very scratch resistant at all.

I know I pulled this up from the 2nd page back, but I wanted to ask about the BK coating that BM uses. It doesn't say what the actual coating is, but I always thought that the BK was Boron Carbide, which is a very hard coating, and much like the popular DLC coatings we are seeing more and more of. The DLC coatings, like on the ZT's mentioned above, are very hard and things being cut are more likely to leave a streak/residue on the coating, instead of an actual scratch. The DLC coating usually has an RC rating in the mid to high 60's, or higher. Definately harder than the steel it covers. I also think that Boron Carbide has a similar RC rating.

But my question is; What is the coating that is identified as BK?


Edited to add;

Did a Google search on Cerakote, and then a search on cerakote being used by Benchmade. Came up with a lot of good info and it sounds like the Cerakote coating is a real improvement in coatings. I know I had gotten some pine resin on the blade of my new Adamas, and after wiping some off I used a product called mothers mag polish to get the rest off and it did a heckuva' job on cleaning the spot so that I polished the entire blade with it!!

Seems to be some really good stuff.

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