O1 steel bead blast ?

[Slip23us]

Is it common to bead blast 01 steel , or is it not good ?

[Ray Rogers]

It's not common to bead blast any steel unless you first bring it to a perfect mirror polish. Bead blasting is done with soft glass beads and since absolutely anything that touches a perfect mirror finish will mar that finish even soft glass beads will have an effect - they will turn it into a soft, cloudy semi-glossy finish. Glass beads have almost no effect on plain satin finished steel.

Sand blasting, on the other hand, will have a significant effect on hardened O1. If you have a nice clean satin finish on the O1 (all grind lines sanded out) the sand blasting will create a nice even military gray finish. The bad news is, that finish is created by making little dents in the steel and little dents are very good at holding moisture or anything that can stain the finish (like blood). For that reason you don't see a lot of sand blasted carbon steel blades unless they really need to be sand blasted for some reason such as to be non-reflective as in a military application.....

[Slip23us]

Thank u for the info, it helps alot

[graveyard]

ray rogers? i have a question im old ex military id like to make a knife flat black without painting .im looking for a texured finish like the usmc, k bar do you say sand ore bead & way mirror first? thank,s a novist

[Ray Rogers]

Graveyard,

No, bead blasting will only result in a soft greyish cloudy finish. Sandblasting can produce a gun metal gray flat finish and is the source of the texture you want. Since there is no such thing as black steel the only way to get steel to look black is with some sort of surface finish. If you use 1080 steel and etch it with ferric chloride the same way we would etch carbon damascus you can produce a black oxide finish of the kind you would see on a cold chisel, just flat black. This is a fairly tough finish but as with any surface coating it can be scratched or scraped off.

There are professional coating processes available like nitride, powder coating, and baked on finishes like Brownell's Moly Gun Coat. These will all produce a flat black finish somewhat thicker than the oxide finish mentioned first. These are very tough finishes but they will wear off with use. On the plus side, all these finishes except for the nitride can be done in your own shop with little or no investment in equipment...

[graveyard]

thanks ray rogers allway,s good info here best to get it from those how know!