Apple viniger patina?

L

lazy otter

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In 1 thread I read I read someone did this or something like it to an ax blade and I can't find the thread? I want to do this apple viniger patina to a bowie I plan on stripping the coating off of. But any other ideas would be great too especially if they have pics! Thanks guys! Oh! And the reason for this is so I can match and repeat it on several Hawks!
 
i have read of a few guys using vinegar, mustard, hot sauce, etc... anything with vinegar or acidic chemistry. brush it on, let it discolor the steel, and run under water to stop it from reacting. essentially what you are doing is rust bluing, but only in patches.

i personally dont like the way they turn out or look, and it is not a durable "patina" like the real thing.
 
Yeah but this guy brang it to a boil? But I can always try different ways and if I don't like it I can change it I guess?
 
I've tried Apple cider vinegar it works ok. However the best stuff i've found to use is the vinegar concentrate which you can find in restaurant supply stores and some supermarkets. the stuff i have is called "Concentrated Brown Vinessence", contains 50% Vinegar (5% Acidity) and 50% Acetic Acid (80% Acidity), Total acidity Approx 42.5%. This stuff is so strong that to make it safe for consumption you have to dilute it with water, 1 part vinegar to 8 parts water! so WARNING DON'T EVER CONSUME IT UNDILUTED! But for knife purposes a table spoon of water mixed with half a capful of vinegar was enough to patina a wide 5 inch bladed knife in a couple of hours. I wrapped the knife blade in a dry papertowel then dabbed the towel with the vinegar water combo. Actually after i removed the towel the blade was black, but then i rubbed it down with some steel wool and tissues and the blade took on a nice even gray finish, but YMMV. It might take some experimenting if you are trying to get a less uniform patina that has patterns.
 
MrFixIt said:
I actually have a 'hawk head sitting in a tub of ACV out in the barn right now.
Click to expand...

Very coo! I got a nice bowie but it has a coated blade and I want to strip it put a nice patina on it and get some sambar stag grips made to go with my hawks! And I saw what I wanted to do on here but for the life of me can't find that thread?
 
lazy otter said:
Yeah but this guy brang it to a boil? But I can always try different ways and if I don't like it I can change it I guess?
Click to expand...

The boiling in distilled water is what reduces the rust to magnetite (black iron oxide). Google slow rust bluing or check out Midway USA's video on their website for more info. I've played around with slow rust bluing and like the results, but it is very time consuming and the nitric acid solution isn't cheap.
 
I watched someone using black walnut hulls (on carbon steel) the other day and I'd like to give it a shot. If you aren't already aware, black walnuts will definitely leave YOU with a patina. But I expect it's going to depend a lot on whether your knife is stainless or not. I've "acid washed" a bunch of stainless blades in boiling vinegar of all varieties (with table salt added in) - the effect is just a sort of gray color and it's not durable at all - although durability probably isn't a factor with patina if you're just looking for a sort of natural barrier on the surface - it will build up over time. If your knife is carbon steel I'm sure the reaction will be quicker and greater. I clean every axe I work on in vinegar and there appear to be stages they go through. A few hours will clean off light rust, and leave the axe more or less gray + whatever discoloration it had, and make the harder steel appear darker. 24 hours seems to clean everything but the most aggressive rust and the axes look "cleaner" - lighter gray and I think most of the durability of this "finish" is that the axes are not smooth on the surface like a knife that's been ground would be. Eventually, especially in the places I have ground the axe to shiny, the harder steel ends up being lighter than the rest. In any event, we're not talking about stainless and vinegar is weak - I think patina is the mixture of whatever good stuff is also found in whatever the blade has cut, the other chemicals in fruit or wood or whatever. I have no science to offer about this but I keep the vinegar from my axe projects and I have noticed that it gets a black, nasty, bubbly film that actually hardens on the surface - I believe this is decades of "patina" and whatever stuff it's made of, floating on the vinegar. The rust sinks to the bottom and if the vinegar eventually evaporates away it leaves a bright orange dust behind. Anyway, point is, I've soaked a lot of crap in vinegar, I think you need other stuff to go with it - tannins, oils, acids, whatever. Also, even a moderately polished stainless blade will laugh in the face of vinegar.

ETA: Here is one of my "acid washes" with boiling vinegar and salt.

k610_bladeghosting by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
 
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