Improved coating blades are disclosed, as well as processes for manufacturing such blades. The inventive blades have an intermediate edge deposit (3) effective to reduce heat transfer from a wear resistant top deposit (2) to the blade substrate (1) . In one embodiment, the intermediate layer is comprised of NiCr, possibly with embedded oxide particles. Suitably, the intermediate layer and the topdeposit are applied by an HVOF process. It is also envisaged that the intermediate layer may be deposited by plasma spraying. The intermediate layer may comprise stabilized zirconia.