Becker BK2 Patina ideas?

heavyfoldersarebest

heavyfoldersarebest

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Nov 8, 2012
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I want to put a patina on it to make it look cooler than it already is. I can only think of doing a grapefruit patina because it looks super cool but I want some other ideas before I go ahead and do that. Also do I need to oil it after a patina?


Here's how it looks right now:
 
Yeah, you should oil it after. You can use yellow mustard and Siracha as a patina. You can slice jalapeños and place them on it. I like to do hot apple cider vinegar, it takes a while, and makes the house smell terrible, but you can get your blade almost black. Orange slices, ect.
 
a polish looks cool too! I only took this one up to 1000 grit. I still want to go steeper.

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I think I'm going to buy some jalapenos and try that out, if it doesn't work out for me then I'll just eat it. Should I get whole jalapenos to slice or should I get the sliced ones in a jar? The pickle juice is acidic right?

Also, does beer work?....it's acidic......
 
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I'll use some gun blue if I want something quick. Just brush it on and give it a buff with some steel wool after. It ends up looing like any other vinegar patina.

Personally I think it looks cool brushing on some mustard in a horizontal pattern, I got the idea from Moose.

You can just use the knife and see what you end up with after a period of time too.
 
I like doing outlined tiger stripes with mustard, or the most recent one I have put on my bk2 is a "Smokey " like patina, its pretty sweet.

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That one is alot darker than it looks on the pictures, the darker looking spots are pretty much black. It was done with some famous New Mexico salsa! :D
 
My favorite patinas? Natural, well... semi natural. Basically just using the blade in the kitchen cutting up everything. Potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and fruit. This patina is awesome because its completely unpredictable and it forms slowly.

Another good one is to place the blade in a cup of almost boiling vinegar. It will put a nice even patina on the blade as long as the blade is free of oils. This can also be a "base" patina for further "patina-ing."

Soak a rag in vinegar and wrap the blade in it. The contours of the rag will pass onto the steel.

Almost any condiment will work, apply thinly, thickly, dab, spread, or draw. The patina will form on the outskirts of the condiment is. So typically thinner works better.

Onto something more sinister.... CHEMICALS!

Gun blue of course will blue the blade... its what its meant to do. Its fast, easy, and can be applied then the whole shabang placed in bleach for an acid etch. PERMANENT! (tons of info on this forum about this)

One I have played with is muriac acid. Stuff can be nasty so I wouldnt recommend this for everyone, and you need to dilute it properly for it to work right, or dont... either way it can be very aggressive.

Another is a cleaner called lemishine. Its basically citric acid crystals. You can dissolve it in hot water or make a paste. Once again its pretty aggressive yet safer than other acids. I've never heard of anyone else using this method. IE you can etch/patina stainless like aus8 or KAI's sandvik with it easily.

Once again when using chemicals use common sense, safety, and dont be silly. You dont want to end up looking like the Phantom of the Opera do yah?
 
I was frustrated at the slow pace of some of the suggested methods above. If you Google patina, responses will suggest hydrogen Peroxide, salt and vinegar. I tried this recipe and the results were quick, very quick.
 
I used pasta sauce for this patina. I just smeared it all over the blade and let sit for ten min or so then repeated the process a few times until I had a good pattern going.









This is what it looked like before the patina.

 
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