but is a knife with a finished blade tougher than one that is coated? my friend said his uncoated knives dont seem as durable as those that have a finished blade. he said coated blades are left porus and that weakens the blade. anyone know if there is truth to this?

This is what Scrap yard uses to make sure its not porus. That claim also relly doesnt make much sense.

"Penetrant Inspection - We Don't "Crack" Under Pressure!

Scrap Yard Knife Co. uses a specialized liquid penetration inspection, which reveals surface breaking flaws by bleedout of fluorescent dye from the flaw.

The technique is based on the ability of a liquid to be drawn into a "clean" surface breaking flaw by what is known as capillary action. (Capillary action is the force that is a resultant of adhesion, cohesion, and surface tension in liquids which are in contact with solids, as in a capillary tube.) After a period of time known as the "dwell", excess surface penetrant is removed and a developer applied. This acts as a "blotter". It draws the penetrant from the flaw to reveal its presence. Ultraviolet "black light" is used in darkened conditions to view the colored penetrants for any cracks, fissures, or other flaws.

What does this mean to you? It means your Scrap Yard knife will be free from microscopic cracks and fissures, invisible to the human eye under normal conditions. Whereas other blades, manufactured by other companies, are sent to customers with "unseen" surface flaws that "crack" under pressure, each Scrap Yard knife is individually inspected to be free from any defects."

No it is not true...steel is steel...coated blades just have a rougher finish underneath...they are hardened the same as a satin or double cut finish...you can strip the coating and put a finish on the steel underneath...many of us do this on Bussekin knives...certainly on Busse's as they have a very high mark up on a satin finish. "Porus" is not an expression I have ever heard applied in this manner...others can comment on this who might know more...sounds well...a mistaken opinion to me.

Boots
Very interesting read on the SYKC. Did you find that on their site?

Steel Fan,
I got the following definition off of Wikipedia:
"The porosity of a porous medium (such as rock or sediment) describes the fraction
of void space in the material, where the void may contain, for example, air or
water".

Perhaps the person that ronmann was talking about associated the rough surface
of the steel with porous-ness (if there's such a word). I couldn't find any
reference to steel, as most of the references were associated with natural
materials like rock, sand, saturated water, and things of that nature.

Cheers

Yes.

The coating offered by manufactures is only to increase appearance and stave off rust. Steel is steel coated or not Scrap Yard steel coated or not all perform so far over the top of other company's steel the choice of buying and using the best is simple. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
The Yard makes their steel both ways but again it is for only rust and appearance only Their steel is always the same. Killer! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Well said Steelfan! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

Peace.

prince, what are the top 2 knives in your AV?

Sorry if someone already pointed this out but I think ronmann was referring to a blade being 'pitted' when stripped. I don't think this pitting would have any negative effect on the performance of the SY line of knives or else Dan would do something about it. It would compromise the "high performance to cost ratio" of the knives and probably the company as well. At least that's what I'd like to think...

The coating hides the unfinished/pitted blade. To strip and remove all the pits takes a lot of labor, that's why there's generally such a big price difference between CG and LE knives. The only real big difference once it's been stripped is more rust potential.

Yes, I checked out "porous" and got the same...I wondered if the word "porous" had been used instead of "pitted"...the concept of a polished Satin being more resistant to oxidation than a CE finish however was what had me mulling over whether the outer molecular surface finish could be described as a "porous" aspect...I could'nt see it myself...the "shine" comes from the refraction of light...not molecular change...it's simply "moon crater" on one level and "smooth like glass" on the other...but hey...you never know...so left it open for others to chime in <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

Yep, I'm inclined to agree with you. It looks like he was talking about "pitted",
which makes sense. You use the coating to cover up the pits in the unfinished
blade rather than spending a lot more time and money finishing up the surface.


Cheers

Looks like a stripped DFCG and DFLE.

Yes I did find that info on the SY site.