[jahwarrior]

is there a practical way to remove the black coating that Cold Steel puts on their knives? i picked up a Trailmaster, and i was thinking i might like it better without the coating. actually, i was thinking about modding the entire knife: blade, handle, etc.

any tips from the experts here? i've seen alot of great work by a lot of you guys, on production knives.

[hso]

Practical? No, not really.

OTOH, if you're very skilled in the use of power tools it does return to the realm of the practical to remove the finish. You'll use up some belts doing it.

[CWL]

You can use epoxy stripper purchased from a hardware store. It works like paint stripper where you coat the epoxy, wait the required amount of time and then scrape/sand it off.

I don't know what it'll do to the rubber handle though, so you'd better be careful.

[jahwarrior]

i might end up removing the handle, as well. i can afford to mess around with this knife; it only cost me $10. i want to start with the blade, though.

i have the Mini-Gurkha they used to sell, and i gave my brother a Recon Tanto years back. the finish on both of those is nearly gone, but because of years of hard use.

[BHP FAN]

Why would you want to?

[jahwarrior]

why not?

[highorder]

I've seen pics of a CS Trailmaster stripped clean with Citri-Strip. An epoxy stripper/paint stripper will work, though I wouldn't have thought it would...

[BHP FAN]

Why not?Well,while I DO own some cheap shiny blades,I prefer those that won't double as signal mirrors...I suppose it's all in what you want a knife for.

[coffeebum]

Epoxy + Sandpaper = gone... it will leave some scratches, higher grit paper like a 300 would be better, scotchbrite will work as well. Buff back to mirror if ya want, or leave it satin.

[DAVIDSDIVAD]

Chemical is the way to go.

using your hands and sandpaper is just going to get you a lot of frustration

[zignal_zero]

i removed the coating from a United Cutlery Ninjato and polished it up. i sprayed it with aircraft stripper and let it set, that did almost NOTHING. i used a small vibrating sander and various grits of paper. i came out pretty nice.

i also did my Benchmade Nimravus, i didn't use any stripper or power tools on that. just hand sanded it, starting with 220 grit. however, as much as i love BM's, their coating is crap and prolly comes off A LOT easier than Cold Steels.

[Mike U.]

Yeah, Benchmade used a Teflon type coating and CS uses an epoxy. Lotta difference in toughness between those two from my experience. CS wins hands down.

jahwarrior,
Be sure to make up your mind what you want to do with the Kraton handle before you do the paint stripper thing. I have several CS knives where the Kraton handles are turning to green goo. Most likely it came from a chemical(s) I was using at one time or another and they were likely exposed.
Good thing about CS knives, the handles aren't all that hard to swap out if your so inclined. Good luck with the project.:)

[DAVIDSDIVAD]

I know other people have had good success using Gasoline to strip CS products.