Glossary

Technical terms /glossary

AIMg3  aluminium alloy with 3% magnesia

Bowie Blade  named after the US National hero James Bowie.
Also known as sabre blade.

Damascus steel - The term comes from the Syrian city of Damascus, once the centre of oriental blade forging. Damascus steel consists of welded or forged steels made up of different compounds and various degrees of hardness. When treating the polished blade surface with corrosive fluid, due to the varying resistance of the ingredients, markings develop at lighter and darker lines (damasking), these form patterns.

DLC  - wear resistant and friction reducing carbon-coating from miniscule diamonds of some nanometres in size, imbedded in phases of graphite. This is the origin of the term diamond-like-carbon (DLC). Contrary to the common PVD coatings the DLC coating is completely smooth and closed, and offers a very high level of protection against salt-water corrosion.

Dull-Finish  high-pressure method for matting of metal surfaces. A dark grey dull surface results from using Korund.

Anodisation - or anodic oxidation. Method to reinforce aluminium surfaces against corrosion and wear and tear. May also be used to dye aluminium shells.

G-10 rough Grip  synthetic handle material with enormous tensile strength of thermosetting resin. The surface structure is determined by the interwoven fibreglass texture.

Hard coat-anodising  special variant of anodic oxidation by which a higher and thus even more wear-resistant layer thickness of the aluminium grip can be reached.

HRC  procedure to measure the hardness of the blade surface. The Rockwell-hardness establishes the hardness via the range of penetration of the test object. With the variant of Rockwell C for hard materials it is a diamond cone that enters the blade in the defined manner.

Kalgard - procedure to coat blades, introduced by knife maker Chris Reeve in the eighties. Kalgard is used as lacquer which is sprayed onto the sandblasted surface of a blade. Final heat treatment 160C bakes the finish to a corrosion and abrasion proof layer.

Liner Lock  - a term devised by Michael Walker, an American knife maker. It describes protecting the blade of a folding knife by using a spring-mounted plate.

Semi Gloss Finish  high-pressure method for matting of metal surfaces. By using ceramic globules the semi-gloss finish evolves.

Spear Point Blade  knife blade in the shape of a spear.

Tanto Blade - traditional Japanese blade form where the blade tip is bent in a straight line.

Tip up/tip down  describes the manner of carrying a folding knife when closed. Trouser clips at the back end means that the tip of the blade points up within the grip, i.e. tip-up. With the tip-down position the trouser clip is positioned at the front end of the grip.