Another forced patina thread

[crbauhs]

I am not interested right now in forcing a patina, however I do have a question about it. 2 actually. First off when doing it, if you were to submerge the whole knife in vinegar would that hurt it? Like kill the spring tension or screw up the brass linings or ever worse, hurt the handle material; be it stag, bone or delrin?

The other question is has anyone noticed that when you force a patina with vinegar that it removes any rust that might be on the blades? I had one knife that was a project to restore and when I forced the patina alot of the surface rust was gone. I found that interesting.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

One thing that I learned, a long time ago (as a kid), was in an experiment in class at school. The experiment involved taking the wishbone from a turkey, submerging it in vinegar for a period of time (hours), then observing the 'changes' in the bone. Long story short, vinegar will turn bone into something approximating rubber. The wishbone, after the vinegar treatment, can literally be tied into a knot without breaking. It's a temporary condition for the bone (it'll stiffen up again), but this demonstrates what vinegar can do to bone if you're not careful with it. Wouldn't be surprised if it does something equally severe to stag. No idea how Delrin would react to it.

Aside from that, vinegar is an acid. I'm sure it can be used to remove rust. But the other side of the coin is, it'll CAUSE corrosion too. It all depends on the amount of time the steel is exposed to the vinegar. A little bit of time will yield a nice 'patina'. Too much time, and the acid (vinegar) will eat away the steel.

I haven't done the forced patina thing yet. But, based upon what I've read here about it, it's all about finesse. Apply it sparingly, and don't leave it on too long. Then, clean it thoroughly when you're done. Any vinegar left behind will continue to oxidize (corrode) the steel.