Ceracoat painted knife blades. Why?

[trbii]

I’m seeing orange and red colored knife blades, fixed and folders, for sale everywhere I look, the last year or so. Most for $300.+. Is there some practical reason for this or simply subjective preference marketing? Maybe I’m not the target customer profile, I like clean, sleek, polished blades.

 

[Jgibs0321]

Some people dont want a flashy blade and want a knife finish that requires less maintenance. Just like when guns are cerakoted! Im sure theres also people that like all the variations of patterns and colors that are purely interested in cosmetics.

 

[SoonerP226]

For some knives, it’s a protective coating to give a carbon steel blade a more corrosion-resistant resistant finish. F’rinstance, D2 is tough and will hold an edge, but it’s not very corrosion resistant, so if you put a coating on it, you can alter that last characteristic. Also, some people (like me) don’t want a flashy blade; in fact, the mirror-like finish on my Magnacut MKC blades is the one thing I’d change about them—given my druthers, I’d prefer that they have a DLC coating, or maybe a stonewash finish.

For some knives, it’s just a stylistic thing to make it stand out. The Benchmade Mini Osborne SHOT Show 2024 exclusive comes with a red blade to help distinguish it as a limited edition knife.

Back at SHOT, Eric Glesser from Spyderco said that they had developed a new finish (maybe a DLC variant?) that would take new colors, so expect to see more of it.

 

[trbii]

Good points, thanks gentlemen. I just browsed MKC knives, seemed to be all coated blades, all sold out. Must be selling them as soon as they roll out of the factory.

 

[SoonerP226]

Good points, thanks gentlemen. I just browsed MKC knives, seemed to be all coated blades, all sold out. Must be selling them as soon as they roll out of the factory.

The ball bearing steel knives are coated, I think, but the Magnacut blades are almost all mirror polished (there are a few special editions that are coated, but I don't recall if any of those are Magnacut). They have some in stock (at least they try to keep them in stock), but most of them get sold in "drops" as they get made. The drops happen at 8pm (Central time) on Thursdays, and they're usually sold out by 8:03pm--and I'm not exaggerating that timeframe. You'd better be damn fast on the trigger if you want one.

Of course, this assumes that your MKC and my MKC are the same thing--Montana Knife Company.