Gun Kote

S

springer82

Well-Known Member
I'm working on a blade that could use something like this. They want me to cook my blade at 325° for a hour. REALLY??? Let's temper it down a little more. Please chime in and let me know what kind you get and what you do to apply it. Thanks!!!
 
I've used DuraCoat on several firearms before, however I've never used it on a knife. It's similar to Gun Kote but doesn't require any baking or pre-heating. I believe it takes longer to setup than Gun Kote but it gets around the tempering problem on a knife.
 
Tempering your blade one more time at 325 will not hurt it, in fact, if anything, it may help a little bit. On the other hand, I use Duracote. I have it on about 200 knives now and haven't had any problems with it. It's not as tough as Cericote but it doesn't require oven baking. Cericote and other coatings that require baking are, IMO, troublesome. When baking, they OFF-GAS at any microscopic impurity on the knife ( like a finger print, or a spot of oil or dust that fell on there) creating spot like a zit. Some of them require two bakings. I just didn't need the extra trouble so I went with the Duracote.
 
I use Gun-Kote and have never had any issues with it affecting my temper. I temper at about 400-425 degrees so no worries there. If my steel called for a 285-300 degree temper I can see the problem. That being said I will tell you from personal experience that you really need to apply it with an airbrush in very thin coats to make it look right. Also, if your steel is not pristine clean you MAY have adhesion issues. All in all I really like the look and performance but I only use the Satin Clear so colors may work differently. Ed really is the best source of info on Gun-Kote that I have seen.
 
I’d say if you are set up with a sandblaster and airbrush try the gunkote. It might take a few tries to get it right. Gunkote goes on thin so a consistent matte blasted surface is important, any less blasted areas will show up after coating.

If you are not set up for blasting and you don’t want to invest yet, I’d look into alumahyde 2 from brownells. It comes in a rattle can, is air curing, and looks good in my opinion. I haven’t found it to be all that different in showing rub marks than gunkote. It may show rub marks pretty quick (like most coatings outside of dlc type) but it takes a while to get through the thickness of the coating.
 
Sean Jones said:
I've used DuraCoat on several firearms before, however I've never used it on a knife. It's similar to Gun Kote but doesn't require any baking or pre-heating. I believe it takes longer to setup than Gun Kote but it gets around the tempering problem on a knife.
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Which one do you use? Rattle can or the one you mix and spray with an airbrush. I like the idea of duracoat but the 4 week shelf life bothers me. I wonder if you get the self mix one could you mix small quantities and avoid the shelf life.
 
Chris Railey said:
Which one do you use? Rattle can or the one you mix and spray with an airbrush. I like the idea of duracoat but the 4 week shelf life bothers me. I wonder if you get the self mix one could you mix small quantities and avoid the shelf life.
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I used an airbrush. I think you would be OK mixing small quantities and getting extended shelf life. How much longer it would last though I'm not sure. You can buy fairly small quantities. Their smallest is 4 ounces which according to their web site would be enough for 1-4 firearms. So that would coat quite a number of knives.

If you go this route I would practice a bit. It's takes a certain touch with the airbrush to get it to lay down right.
 
Yeah, gun kote is a little hard to spray right too. But I cannot patch or re-spray if needed after my finish work becsuse of the heat cured part so I will do some testing with the dura coat. Thanks.
 
I use Duracote and I actually get quite a bit more shelf life than a month. It's the hardener that goes bad, if it does you just get more hardener. I can get about a dozen large knives from 4 ozs. with pretty thick coverage (two coats). I just got done spraying 70 of my 1911 Combat Survivors for the Christmas rush.
 
I just watched the shootout WS put up on youtube comparing dura coat, cera kote, gun kote, and sprays. Interesting results, not sure how objective the results were, but it looked like he was trying to be fair with the assessment.
 
DanF said:
I just watched the shootout WS put up on youtube comparing dura coat, cera kote, gun kote, and sprays. Interesting results, not sure how objective the results were, but it looked like he was trying to be fair with the assessment.
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Who won?
 
Chris Railey said:
Who won?
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I was hesitant to to state that as it is a 27 minute video that I stopped at around 17 minutes so I did not see what he said in that last nine or ten minutes ((I have poor internet and vids are difficult for me to watch).
At the time I stopped watching the video, cerakote was far ahead in abrasion resistance. I'd like to watch the rest as I can to get his final results.
 
DanF said:
I was hesitant to to state that as it is a 27 minute video that I stopped at around 17 minutes so I did not see what he said in that last nine or ten minutes ((I have poor internet and vids are difficult for me to watch).
At the time I stopped watching the video, cerakote was far ahead in abrasion resistance. I'd like to watch the rest as I can to get his final results.
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I have no doubt that Cerakote is tougher than Duracote, I tested them both here in my shop. The extra hassle just wasn't worth it for me. If I was doing one knife once in a while it would be fine but for 70 at a time the logistics were just impossible for me. I'm just not set up to bake that many in any reasonable amount of time.
 
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