How well does blued finish hold up? (cold steel 1917 frontier bowie)

Y

y53p

Joined
May 11, 2022
Messages
298
Interested in the 1917; I know it's 1085, so no chromium, and no corrosion resistance. It comes with some kind of old school blued steel finish. Is it just some aesthetic crap that wears off instantly or does it actually last through hard use and keep off rust? Anyone who owns this knife, feel free to share your experience.

PS also does anyone know where this thing is made exactly? Some sources say India, some say China; there's also confusion on the steel, a lot of sellers say it's 1085, some others say it's 1055.
 
Last edited:
Holds up great if you don't use it,
Otherwise cutting through tough materials like wood or hide will be more taxing on the finish irregardless of make and model. Someone with more personal experience can chime in
 
Steely_Gunz said:
I don't have one, but I would think it's going to be pretty fragile in terms of finish. The good thing about the bluing is that you can touch it up with gun blue.
Click to expand...
But will it really blend well with the original bluing or will it look like someone went over a scratch with a sharpie?
 
19-3ben said:
But will it really blend well with the original bluing or will it look like someone went over a scratch with a sharpie?
Click to expand...

Depends on the blueing/blacking you use. Blueing isn't really durable. It's for preventing surface rust and even then requires some oil now and then in my experience. Bkueing looks are dependent upon the bluing method used, the bluing chemicals, and of course the polishing of the material to be blued, or general type of metal and condition. In other words, you'll have to experiment if you are lookng for prefection. YMMV
 
19-3ben said:
But will it really blend well with the original bluing or will it look like someone went over a scratch with a sharpie?
Click to expand...

I don't have Cold Steel knives. And generally I don't like coated knives, but blueing is different. Here is an example where I fixed some scratches:

i-kPFRgjq-X3.jpg


Note that you might have to clean the edge (by sharpening, for instance) if you touch it when bluing.

Roland.
 
If it's not a user , a little oil and it should last forever .

But blued guns will show wear pretty fast even just from handling and holster carry .

I would just let the blueing wear off ,on a user/beater, and leave it patina or polish .
 
19-3ben said:
But will it really blend well with the original bluing or will it look like someone went over a scratch with a sharpie?
Click to expand...

If I used it enough to scratch the bluing off, I would probably scotchbrite the whole thing, buff it with sandpaper to whatever finish i wanted, and blue it all over again. For the quality and pricepoint of this knife, I wouldnt be too concerned, tbh.
 
To be blunt, if you want things to remain “mint” forever, you can’t use them at all. That being said, if you’ve ever been to a museum and seen a medieval sword that was taken care of, you can see that steel doesn’t have to rust away. Now if you are going to use a tool such as a knife reasonable wear must be expected. Blueing will wear. Depending on how it was applied will determine how quickly it wears. Oil the blade and clean it after use. Blueing can easily be reapplied but it’s very difficult to match coloring so all the old blue would need to be removed for best results before an application of blueing solution. The Cold Steel blades with blueing that I have seen used, showed rub marks chopping wood first time out. It wasn’t to bare metal but it was not the factory fresh bright blue either. Cleaned and oiled after, the blades didn’t rust.
 
Re bluing is easy I use birchwood casey super blue. I've had good luck using acetone to clean first, it acts like an etching to the steel. I recommend doing draw strokes with your sanding media for best results.
 
Thanks for the info everyone; btw if any of you owns this knife, is this thing made in India or China? Bladehq and some other sites list it as Chinese made, while Knifecenter and other sellers, as well as reviews on it, list it as Indian made. Are there different versions of it made in different countries or do people just not know for sure where the 1917 is made?
 
HexY3co said:
Re bluing is easy I use birchwood casey super blue. I've had good luck using acetone to clean first, it acts like an etching to the steel. I recommend doing draw strokes with your sanding media for best results.
Click to expand...
Did you know if i can super blue CPM3V steel (Bark River) ?
 
Cognoscenti said:
Did you know if i can super blue CPM3V steel (Bark River) ?
Click to expand...
First off I love your pool cue avatar name. I have not tried to blue 3v but I don't see why not since it isn't a stainless. I would want to try it on a spare piece to be sure it doesn't screw it up.
 
3V won't take a good blue. Too much chrome in the steel. That's why it is pretty rust resistant for a non stainless. I've used a lot of different cold blue treatments on guns and knives over the decades and I haven't found one that is satisfactory to me compared to a nice hot blue treatment. Of course all sucked here in NC on range day in august when it's near a hundred degrees and sweat is pouring. I've seen lots of beautiful mirror like factory blue guns get ruined from things like etched on fingerprints. I started changing to either stainless or easy to maintain finishes with plenty of paste wax for hot humid weather.
 
It would be nice if CS offered a dlc coating on some of its bigger bowie knives, even if it bumped up the price a little. You would still have to practice good maintenance for rust prevention, but dlc would hold up much better in terms of wear resistance than standard bluing..

My 10 year old cts-xhp recon 1 with the dlc still looks almost new in terms of the blade finish after all this time and miles of cutting..
 
Corton93 said:
It would be nice if CS offered a dlc coating on some of its bigger bowie knives, even if it bumped up the price a little. You would still have to practice good maintenance for rust prevention, but dlc would hold up much better in terms of wear resistance than standard bluing..

My 10 year old cts-xhp recon 1 with the dlc still looks almost new in terms of the blade finish after all this time and miles of cutting..
Click to expand...
I really liked Cold Steel's DLC , but apparently never sold too well .
 
y53p said:
Thanks for the info everyone; btw if any of you owns this knife, is this thing made in India or China? Bladehq and some other sites list it as Chinese made, while Knifecenter and other sellers, as well as reviews on it, list it as Indian made. Are there different versions of it made in different countries or do people just not know for sure where the 1917 is made?
Click to expand...

It's Indian, subcontracted out to Windlass Steelcrafts (or the same contractors they use). The quality is very good, a few notches up from even good Indian stuff. The only variation I know of with the 1917 Bowie is that the earliest batches were 1055 steel, later they upgraded to 1085.
 
tltt said:
It's Indian, subcontracted out to Windlass Steelcrafts (or the same contractors they use). The quality is very good, a few notches up from even good Indian stuff. The only variation I know of with the 1917 Bowie is that the earliest batches were 1055 steel, later they upgraded to 1085.
Click to expand...
Absolutly. The f&f on the 1917 bowie and the wild west bowie is good and they are very tough knives. I used the 1917 a few times for some chopping and battoning, the blueing is still intact but you can see some marks from the wood.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top