What type of finish is good for a user blade?

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BennytheBlade
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What type of finish is good for a user blade?

Post by BennytheBlade »

Pretty straight forward.
It seems to me that users dont need a mirror polish, but what finish seems to hold up best to abuse?
Very funny, Scotty. Now beam down my clothes.
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Vagrant
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Re: What type of finish is good for a user blade?

Post by Vagrant »

BennytheBlade wrote:Pretty straight forward.
It seems to me that users dont need a mirror polish, but what finish seems to hold up best to abuse?
ALL black finishes will wear sooner or later but the one on my Fer-De-Lance doesn't have any "shiney spots" yet, [no place where the black has worn to bare metal] it still looks pretty good. A brushed [satin] finish is o.k. but scratches are brighter than the rest of the knife. Scratches look very bad on a mirror finish.
Everything has it's drawbacks, and good points, there is no "best" finish.
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jim d,
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Post by jim d, »

Benny,

I was advised to buy the "stonewashed" finish on my mini-UDT for the reason you cited. It does seem to hide the scratches quite well.

Jim
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Pushbutton
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Post by Pushbutton »

I'll go with Mr Vagrant on this one. Coated,satin,black ,ya da da da da da are gonna scratch on a user it's a fact of life so pick anything and live with it cause it's a user so use away. But don't go with a mirror polish cause it will really look like shit after heavy use. My problem with stonewash is they already look like they have been used for years but on the other hand maybe they will hide the scratches in their blotches. No offense Elvis since I notice as I'm writing this that you like the stonewash finish.
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BennytheBlade
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Post by BennytheBlade »

Thanks for the feedback-
I dont really worry about it too much, but there are a coupla knives I use and that I may refinish for practice.
Very funny, Scotty. Now beam down my clothes.
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crazyfool
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Post by crazyfool »

The best user finish bar-none is the Anopeen finish by Microtech.
This finish was achieved by first beadblasting the blade and then stonewashing it which makes for a remarkably tough and yet easy to clean finish(we are talking users). This particular finish was discovered by accident.

Cheap-ass Tony at Microtech decided it wasn't a finish he wanted to continue because it was actually two processes to make one finished blade.

But I would go with stonewash finishes on other brands for use in the user category.
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