How to make DLC coat looks like "already wear off" or stonewashed.

Y

Yono01

Joined
Apr 8, 2017
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Hi there.

I have pm2 in digicamo and black dlc coat blade. Mine is still new. But i want to force my blade to look a bit like "stonewashed" like in this thread:

Post in thread 'Ever stripped the DLC off a recent Spyderco? (just curious)' https://www.bladeforums.com/threads...t-spyderco-just-curious.1819105/post-20837912

Is it possible if i do sandpaper it? Let say with 1000 grit maybe? I know dlc coat is very tough. But i dont want to remove it completely. I just need to make it look like already "wear off" if that the correct words to say.

Any suggestion guys?
Thank you.
 
Hello,
I think the “greenie pad” referred to in the other linked post is also called a “Scotch Bright” pad.
My family called them “scratchy pads”, but they are used for dish washing and are less abrasive than sandpaper.
(Don’t use sandpaper - it’ll most likely look bad).
 
scdub said:
Hello,
I think the “greenie pad” referred to in the other linked post is also called a “Scotch Bright” pad.
My family called them “scratchy pads”, but they are used for dish washing and are less abrasive than sandpaper.
(Don’t use sandpaper - it’ll most likely look bad).
Click to expand...
Ah. Okay. So he rub it with that green pad like the brand from 3M for dish washing. Okay. I probably will try it. I am guessing it will take super long time. But let see. I am thinking i will use the smoother sandpaper grit but i am not sure what the result will be.

I will give it a try with green pad 1st.

Thanks guys.
 
Locutus D'Borg said:
Wow, yours is a post I never thought I'd see. But I'm an anti-coating-ist. I think I just saw a knife in MagnaCut, I forget the brand, and it was DLC-coated. Why? I hope Larrin presses charges. lol
Click to expand...

Actually i am anti coating too! Lol. I have 3 PM2s (including this digicamo+coated blade) and 2 para3s. All of them in satin except this digicamo one. The reason i keep this color is because from all these 5 spydercos (pm2 and para3)..this digicamo is the most perfect one. The blade centering..open and close mechanism etc everything is perfect from factory. Others not so. I probably have a bad luck with spyderco QC. All my benchmades are fine with QC except just one. And that is mini freek carbon. It has a slight blade play.
 
Guys. Good news for me. Actually is not that hard at all. It took me about 15 minutes only to make it like DLC coat a bit like greyish in a nice way. I rub it gently with wet sandpaper 800 grit. And final touch it with 3000 grit just to make the black color faded smoothly. And its done lol. I am happy now.

I wish i could post picture in here. But i dont know how.

Thanks guys.
 
Never tried modifying factory coatings.
But..
A low tech stonewash can be done by droppin your blade in a plastic bottle full of gravel and shakin' it 'till looks how you want...to step up the lazy/ tech wrap your bottle full o gravel in tape an cloth and chuck it in a tumble dryer, check regularly.
 
I tried to upload image but i could not. I will try again later. I already did it with wet sand paper. Rub it gently. Started with 800. And then 1500. And final touch it with 5000. The result is good enough. I am happy for it. Not as hard as i thought it would be. I only need 15 minutes and another 10 munutes of sanding to make the grey-ish look more even. Not so hard. Lol.
 
Yono01 said:
I have pm2 in digicamo and black dlc coat blade. Mine is still new. But i want to force my blade to look a bit like "stonewashed" like in this thread:
Click to expand...
A tumbler with ceramic media would be fastest/easiest option that comes to mind to achieve a "stonewashed" finish.


Example of the media I mentioned:
IMG_20220613_144342-720Wide.jpg
 
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scdub said:
Looks great!

I’m glad I was wrong about using sandpaper! :)
Click to expand...
Thank you friend! 😁
Actually i was surprised my self knowing the DLC coat come off this easy. I thought the words Diamond Like Coating will took me hours or something but its not. And i am thinking to do this on my other knifes as well 😁
 
Yono01 said:
Thank you friend! 😁
Actually i was surprised my self knowing the DLC coat come off this easy. I thought the words Diamond Like Coating will took me hours or something but its not. And i am thinking to do this on my other knifes as well 😁
Click to expand...
That's actually Diamond-Like Carbon... But yeah it comes off pretty readily with sandpaper. I removed mine in about 10 seconds from a Pro-Tech Godson with a belt sander when I reprofiled the blade to .010" behind the edge. It's tough stuff but not that tough. On the coating front, I would have kept it if the blade wasn't too thick behind the edge for me. I liked the non-glare black finish. Also can prevent corrosion with certain steels.
 
DLC is a nitride coating that penetrates the surface of the steel. The outer coating will wear, but the DLC is still there.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
DLC is a nitride coating that penetrates the surface of the steel. The outer coating will wear, but the DLC is still there.
Click to expand...
You have a reference for that? I've done quite a lot of reading on different DLC coatings and have not seen that claim before. I have read of DLC being layered on top of a buffer nitride coating layer to aid in bonding of the DLC, but never that DLC was a form of nitride.
 
Locutus D'Borg said:
Wow, yours is a post I never thought I'd see. But I'm an anti-coating-ist. I think I just saw a knife in MagnaCut, I forget the brand, and it was DLC-coated. Why? I hope Larrin presses charges. lol
Click to expand...
Because it s hardness is 90-95 Rockwell and make steel scratch resistant and most important coefficient of friction is approaching that of Teflon, thus eliminating galling and frictional wear............ and edge last longer .
 
Bill DeShivs said:
DLC is a nitride coating that penetrates the surface of the steel. The outer coating will wear, but the DLC is still there.
Click to expand...
Bill , I have some parts DLC coated and it is out of question you can make single scratch with sandpaper no matter how much you try that .How this guys can do that on knives without any effort I can t understand ? It is thickness of coating , it is some kind of decorative DLC coating or what ?
 
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