- Joined
- Mar 12, 2013
- Messages
- 1,167
Hey guys!
I've been wanting to put together a comprehensive test of a bunch of different blade coatings for a while... Doing this was complicated by the fact that trying to get things like DLC coating done on a small scale is pretty difficult, most companies don't want to talk to you if you're only coating a few blades, so I spent a lot of time finding companies that were ok with doing small quantities!
After a bunch of work I was able to put together a pool of 6 candidate coatings for testing:
1) DLC - Diamond Like Carbon, a thin film of vacuum deposited amorphous diamond.
2) Cerakote - A 2 part epoxy coating that's sprayed onto the blades. Originally invented for use on firearms.
3) CrN - Chromium Nitride, a thin layer of nitrided chrome vacuum deposited onto the blades.
4) WCC - Tungsten Carbide Carbon, a coating that's a competitor of DLC, often used on injection molds in Europe, but not seen as much in North America.
5) WCC + CrN - A dual layer coating with CrN as the underlayer and WCC as the top layer.
6) Satin A2 - A hand-rubbed 600 grit satin finish on A2 tool steel (mainly for comparison).
I know coated blades are not everyone's thing, but I personally really love the combination of toughness and low-maintenance that a coated medium-alloy tool steel blade allows.
To put the coatings through their paces I did a variety of wear-resistance tests and corrosion resistance tests. The tests included:
1) Cutting 400 linear feet of double-wall corrugated cardboard with each blade
2) Wood-carving with each blade
3) Splitting dry hardwood with each blade (poplar and mahogany)
4) Each blade stripped of any oil and wrapped in wet towels for 48 hours
5) Each blade lightly oiled (with mineral oil) wrapped in wet towels 144 hours
All the blades were made from the same steel and heat-treated the same way to ensure consistency during the various tests. All were A2 tool steel heat-treated to 62-63HRC.
With the introductions out of the way, let's get to the video!
[video=youtube;s6cKjbDToXU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6cKjbDToXU[/video]
As you can see, the coatings all reacted very differently... DLC was overall the most forgiving during the tests and as such I will be using it as my standard coating on all my blades going forward. It's really quite amazing how well it holds up... The fact that it out-performs a satin finish blade during wear testing really threw me for a loop, I never would have guessed that a coated blade could perform at that level and it was amazing to see it first-hand!
Hope you guys enjoy the video and perhaps find the results useful in some way!
If you have any questions about the coatings, the application processes, the tests or anything else please let me know!
-Aaron
I've been wanting to put together a comprehensive test of a bunch of different blade coatings for a while... Doing this was complicated by the fact that trying to get things like DLC coating done on a small scale is pretty difficult, most companies don't want to talk to you if you're only coating a few blades, so I spent a lot of time finding companies that were ok with doing small quantities!
After a bunch of work I was able to put together a pool of 6 candidate coatings for testing:
1) DLC - Diamond Like Carbon, a thin film of vacuum deposited amorphous diamond.
2) Cerakote - A 2 part epoxy coating that's sprayed onto the blades. Originally invented for use on firearms.
3) CrN - Chromium Nitride, a thin layer of nitrided chrome vacuum deposited onto the blades.
4) WCC - Tungsten Carbide Carbon, a coating that's a competitor of DLC, often used on injection molds in Europe, but not seen as much in North America.
5) WCC + CrN - A dual layer coating with CrN as the underlayer and WCC as the top layer.
6) Satin A2 - A hand-rubbed 600 grit satin finish on A2 tool steel (mainly for comparison).
I know coated blades are not everyone's thing, but I personally really love the combination of toughness and low-maintenance that a coated medium-alloy tool steel blade allows.
To put the coatings through their paces I did a variety of wear-resistance tests and corrosion resistance tests. The tests included:
1) Cutting 400 linear feet of double-wall corrugated cardboard with each blade
2) Wood-carving with each blade
3) Splitting dry hardwood with each blade (poplar and mahogany)
4) Each blade stripped of any oil and wrapped in wet towels for 48 hours
5) Each blade lightly oiled (with mineral oil) wrapped in wet towels 144 hours
All the blades were made from the same steel and heat-treated the same way to ensure consistency during the various tests. All were A2 tool steel heat-treated to 62-63HRC.
With the introductions out of the way, let's get to the video!
[video=youtube;s6cKjbDToXU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6cKjbDToXU[/video]
As you can see, the coatings all reacted very differently... DLC was overall the most forgiving during the tests and as such I will be using it as my standard coating on all my blades going forward. It's really quite amazing how well it holds up... The fact that it out-performs a satin finish blade during wear testing really threw me for a loop, I never would have guessed that a coated blade could perform at that level and it was amazing to see it first-hand!
Hope you guys enjoy the video and perhaps find the results useful in some way!
If you have any questions about the coatings, the application processes, the tests or anything else please let me know!
-Aaron
