I love the look of SS knives that have been bead blasted. I would love to do this to my Lava, How and or where can I get this done?
Thanks
Bead Blasting....?
Bead Blasting....?
-John
Bead Blasting
Many metal shops have bead blasting cabinets. I would advise against it unless you have a tactical need to not have reflections. Beadblasting increases the surface area and provides lots of nooks and crannies for salt and moisture. The end result is rust. The Spydercard is beadblasted and it is the one Spyderco knife that I had get rust spots while sitting in my safe. If you are set on bead blasting a knife remember to remove the blade from the knife or completely seal up the blade pivot. Once the glass beads get in there it will make the knife very gritty feeling. One other thing to remember when beadblasting is that you need to have proper safety equipment, (gloves, cabinet, etc.). Hope this helps.
spyderwa
Rare Spyderco Page
http://www.angelfire.com/trek/spyderwa
spyderwa
Rare Spyderco Page
http://www.angelfire.com/trek/spyderwa
I have not had any issues with rusting on stainless knives I've bead blasted personally. Usually when you see a little develop it rubs right off leaving no tell tale signs from what I've read by other users. There are some steels you wouldn't want to bead blast. If you use a very fine grit glass bead it can give the blade, body and overall look a less refelctive finish that actually has a texture to it that some like. I've bead blasted D2 blades without issues with rusting. In fact I'm carrying one now and I know a lot of makers that bead blast D2 all the time never reporting problems. This even though its technically non stainless.
Many companies stopped doing it to blades a while back. I think Emerson was one of them that bead blasted blades earlier and stopped due to customer complaints about rusting. I had some of those earlier knives and never had any problems with mine though. I think some people have more problem with it due to location or just how well or not so well they wipe off their blade after using it.
I just bead blasted two all SS Delica 4s and a one Lava SS all in the last week for two separate members. One thing I liked better immediately was no longer being able to see my finger prints all over it after using it. I hate that more than anything with mirror or semi polished blades and bodies.
STR
Many companies stopped doing it to blades a while back. I think Emerson was one of them that bead blasted blades earlier and stopped due to customer complaints about rusting. I had some of those earlier knives and never had any problems with mine though. I think some people have more problem with it due to location or just how well or not so well they wipe off their blade after using it.
I just bead blasted two all SS Delica 4s and a one Lava SS all in the last week for two separate members. One thing I liked better immediately was no longer being able to see my finger prints all over it after using it. I hate that more than anything with mirror or semi polished blades and bodies.
STR
It is not necessary to do extraordinary things in life but only to do ordinary things extraordinarily well.
STR's Blog
STR's Blog
STR wrote:I have not had any issues with rusting on stainless knives I've bead blasted personally. Usually when you see a little develop it rubs right off leaving no tell tale signs from what I've read by other users. There are some steels you wouldn't want to bead blast. If you use a very fine grit glass bead it can give the blade, body and overall look a less refelctive finish that actually has a texture to it that some like. I've bead blasted D2 blades without issues with rusting. In fact I'm carrying one now and I know a lot of makers that bead blast D2 all the time never reporting problems. This even though its technically non stainless.
Many companies stopped doing it to blades a while back. I think Emerson was one of them that bead blasted blades earlier and stopped due to customer complaints about rusting. I had some of those earlier knives and never had any problems with mine though. I think some people have more problem with it due to location or just how well or not so well they wipe off their blade after using it.
I just bead blasted two all SS Delica 4s and a one Lava SS all in the last week for two separate members. One thing I liked better immediately was no longer being able to see my finger prints all over it after using it. I hate that more than anything with mirror or semi polished blades and bodies.
STR
Can wait to get my SS Delica and LAVA back from you STR. I love the look of the bead-blasted SS Spyderco's.
As far as getting the bead-blasting done, look no further than STR right here on the friendly forum. He is lightening fast, and does exetremely good work.
If you have a concern about possible rusting due to bead-blasting, get some TUF-CLOTH and wipe down your SS knives and all your blades, and you will not have any rust worries. If you live on the coast, or subject your knives to a lot of moisture, get Marine TUF-CLOTH. Not much difference in the two products though. I live in hot, humid Dallas-Ft. Worth area, and regular TUF-CLOTH has always performed well on both my knives and various tools.
Spyderco Collector #162
bead blasting
I don't want you to think that I am totally against beadblasting. Just be a little extra watchful. Many companies beadblast their knives. Sometimes because it covers up tooling marks on the steel. You can make a less expensive knife blade look better for less money. One situation that I totally like beadblasting for is if you are going to coat or paint the metal. The texture gives the coating more to grip to.
spyderwa
spyderwa
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markIVbigblock
- Member
- Posts: 152
- Joined: Thu Mar 10, 2005 2:08 pm
- Location: Ferris State University in Big Rapids Michigan
STR is fast as Lightening!! Mailed them Saturday, get them back on Thursday, and there was even President's Day in between. Beautiful work, Steve! It makes them much easier to photograph, much less the new look and feel. Take a look...JspyEDC wrote:Can wait to get my SS Delica and LAVA back from you STR. I love the look of the bead-blasted SS Spyderco's.
As far as getting the bead-blasting done, look no further than STR right here on the friendly forum. He is lightening fast, and does exetremely good work.
If you have a concern about possible rusting due to bead-blasting, get some TUF-CLOTH and wipe down your SS knives and all your blades, and you will not have any rust worries. If you live on the coast, or subject your knives to a lot of moisture, get Marine TUF-CLOTH. Not much difference in the two products though. I live in hot, humid Dallas-Ft. Worth area, and regular TUF-CLOTH has always performed well on both my knives and various tools.
Spyderco Collector #162
Aaron. I disagree with your quote on this. However If you or someone else wants to do all that it takes to do these to please most knife people and do it for free jump on it. I have had people tell me they got quotes as high as $40 to bead blast items and most shops have a minimum shop fee so its at least going to run you $25. or $30 from what I've seen quoted from other knife people. Now I'm speaking of professional shops. Not Joe blow down the street with a body shop that happens to have a blast cabinet. So, I am sure you can get someone to just blast your knife for you for next to nothing. But be aware of what you get. I don't think Joe blow is going to go to the trouble of cleaning them up, degraining all the mechanisms, lubing them and resharpening the blade to as good or better than factory for free though or even for $5. He'll just hand you your dull knife back with grit in every mechanism and say there you go.
For what its worth. To fully cover the surfaces uniformly you go over them a minimum of three passes on every side in and out, blade too. You hit them straight on and not at an angle so there are no shiny spots. You check them in sunlight and if any areas are missed you go back over it again. The bead blasting will dull the crap out of the blade. I get $5.00 per knife just to sharpen them back up let alone bead blast them and then get them working again after the grit gets all through them. From start to finish on each knife is longer than just a few minutes. The blasting itself may seem fast to most but its more involved than just blasting a folder and sending it home. If the folder comes apart its going to be taken apart to do each part separately and completely on all sides. I'm not trying to start an argument with you over what you think is fair but it takes longer than you might think at first glance. This is especially true if you have to do any taping off to protect logos and other things you don't necessarily want removed. And then don't forget any shipping and/or insurance if that is wanted by the owner which can run anywhere from minimum first class shipping of a few bucks to $5.95 for Priority with signiture confirmation all the way up to over $8 or more depending on the amount of insurance.
STR
For what its worth. To fully cover the surfaces uniformly you go over them a minimum of three passes on every side in and out, blade too. You hit them straight on and not at an angle so there are no shiny spots. You check them in sunlight and if any areas are missed you go back over it again. The bead blasting will dull the crap out of the blade. I get $5.00 per knife just to sharpen them back up let alone bead blast them and then get them working again after the grit gets all through them. From start to finish on each knife is longer than just a few minutes. The blasting itself may seem fast to most but its more involved than just blasting a folder and sending it home. If the folder comes apart its going to be taken apart to do each part separately and completely on all sides. I'm not trying to start an argument with you over what you think is fair but it takes longer than you might think at first glance. This is especially true if you have to do any taping off to protect logos and other things you don't necessarily want removed. And then don't forget any shipping and/or insurance if that is wanted by the owner which can run anywhere from minimum first class shipping of a few bucks to $5.95 for Priority with signiture confirmation all the way up to over $8 or more depending on the amount of insurance.
STR
It is not necessary to do extraordinary things in life but only to do ordinary things extraordinarily well.
STR's Blog
STR's Blog
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jaislandboy
- Member
- Posts: 6150
- Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2005 1:00 pm
- Location: tennessee
Yeah, it may be a bit too much education mixed with a bit of my opinion but my point is that most knifemakers are going to do it right. Non knife people are just going to blast it and all the rest is up to you. In other words its not apples to apples comparisons. Most knife makers have too much of a conscience to just blast your knife and not clean it up and finish it the way they'd want it themselves. Most makers probably won't even want to take the time away from their other bigger money projects to do it if it isnt' worth their time so if you call or contact a knife maker to do something like this in the way of a smaller project for you, especially one that is getting a premium for his work anyway you should be prepared to pay him more than a few dollars to do it.
The reason I point this out is because of other threads from other forums I've read over time. I remember one in particular where a maker was asked if he could Rockwell test some blades and this guy then wrote a nasty post about his quote to do that for him complaining about what the maker wanted to do it. The guy he asked gets $500 for one of his cheaper folders. $5000 for one of his swords. Now when you consider this when he wanted $50 to take about an hour of his time away from those other projects to basically do a favor for someone you can see that he was actually taking a cut in pay to help someone out and then got a nasty note on a public forum about it. I'm not suggesting that anyone did that here, just that it reminded me that maybe you need to look at it from the standpoint of more than just the blasting time in a case like this. Many times getting the project prepared for blasting by taping off a project before hand takes four or five times longer than the actual blasting which is very quick by comparison, and then cleaning it up and sharpening it can often take as long as taping.
I apologize for the length of this and please don't feel like I'm singling you out Aaron. I am sure many of the other end line users have often thought the same thing about some fees from knife makers. I'm just trying to present the other side of the coin is all.
STR
The reason I point this out is because of other threads from other forums I've read over time. I remember one in particular where a maker was asked if he could Rockwell test some blades and this guy then wrote a nasty post about his quote to do that for him complaining about what the maker wanted to do it. The guy he asked gets $500 for one of his cheaper folders. $5000 for one of his swords. Now when you consider this when he wanted $50 to take about an hour of his time away from those other projects to basically do a favor for someone you can see that he was actually taking a cut in pay to help someone out and then got a nasty note on a public forum about it. I'm not suggesting that anyone did that here, just that it reminded me that maybe you need to look at it from the standpoint of more than just the blasting time in a case like this. Many times getting the project prepared for blasting by taping off a project before hand takes four or five times longer than the actual blasting which is very quick by comparison, and then cleaning it up and sharpening it can often take as long as taping.
I apologize for the length of this and please don't feel like I'm singling you out Aaron. I am sure many of the other end line users have often thought the same thing about some fees from knife makers. I'm just trying to present the other side of the coin is all.
STR
It is not necessary to do extraordinary things in life but only to do ordinary things extraordinarily well.
STR's Blog
STR's Blog
