Stripping an Ontario Vulpine coating

[markymark6290]

I recently acquired an Ontario Vulpine, which I have truly come to appreciate as a mainstay carry in the field. However, the finish leaves a LOT to be desired. Unlike the ESEE or Becker black finishes, this particular finish has an almost sandpaper grit that gets caught on everything almost like velcro.

Anyway, at one point I had stripped an ESEE 3 using Citristrip paint stripper, and had little to no trouble in doing so. I let the same paint stripper sit on my Vulpine for 12 hours over night, and using a light sandpaper, I could barely break through the finish to the blade underneath.

My question is this: What would be your recommendation for a solvent to fully strip an Ontario Vulpine? Right now the sandy grit of the finish is subsided, but it looks like hell..

Thanks!
-Mark

 

[Blue Sky]

The Vulpine has a "black phosphate" coating. That's not paint, so I'm not surprised Citristrip didn't work. A quick search showed a few methods to remove a phosphate coating, most of which mentioned chemicals I am not familiar with so I hesitate to recommend them. One person did suggest heated citric acid, which seemed the most benign option of them all. Maybe a soak in hot lemon juice then? That will probably attack your edge as well, so a mask there might be in order. Proceed with caution...

 

[markymark6290]

The Vulpine has a "black phosphate" coating. That's not paint, so I'm not surprised Citristrip didn't work. A quick search showed a few methods to remove a phosphate coating, most of which mentioned chemicals I am not familiar with so I hesitate to recommend them. One person did suggest heated citric acid, which seemed the most benign option of them all. Maybe a soak in hot lemon juice then? That will probably attack your edge as well, so a mask there might be in order. Proceed with caution...

Thanks for the info! And yeah, I let Citristrip sit for 3 hours initially, then went to work on it. Nothing. I applied a second coat, let it sit from 9:00 PM until 9:00 AM the next morning. That dulled the grit of the finish, and a little bit of the steel started to show through, but still no real progress. I applied a third coat and let it sit for 6 more hours. It dulled all of the grit of the finish down, and I was able to clear the blade pretty well, but it more patina'd the finish and the bare steel than it actually removed the phosphate coating. I let it be, re-wrapped the handle, and now I'm hesitant to try again mostly because of the wrapped handle.

I've come to appreciate the finish, may just let it wear down naturally:

 

[Blue Sky]

I think I'd leave it as-is at this point, now that the grittiness is gone. Looks like a user, think I might want one for myself