Blade is staining

J

jg2850

Joined
Jul 21, 2022
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New to knife making made a nice little paring knife for my wife from 1095. Problem I have is that it is the blade is staining when used with just about anything. Any helpful suggestions about what I may have done wrong or how I may fix the problem?
 
1095 is a carbon steel, prone to rust in the worst case and patina in the best. A mustard patina will offer minor protection against rust. There are tons of YouTube videos.

Wash and dry the knife immediately after each use. A light coating of your favorite cooking oil will help.
 
jg2850 said:
Thanks for the advice. I will give it a try. Perhaps try a different steel.... Hesitant to dive into stainless until I get more experience under my belt.
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You can look into simpler steels that have a bit more alloy. Possibly look up a chart or something similar of the corrosion resistances of steels online.

You really aren't going to get anything super simple In composition that will have any major bump in stain resistance, though 1095 could possibly be more prone to this than other alloys (not really noticeably so, if at all). If you want to use 1095, and don't want to get any patina. Maybe look into parkerizing (check to make sure its food safe first), doing a ferric chloride etch, a forced patina, or something similar.

I can give you a trick that chef's like to use on their carbon steel blades. I just call it the 2 towel method, or wet towel dry towel. Basically, keep 2 folded up towels in the corners of your cutting board, one should be slightly damp, the other dry. As you go take your blade and occasionally run both sides on the damp towel to wipe whatever slightly acidic ingredients may be reacting with the steel, and go back to cutting. If you intend to step away, or set the knife down, do the wet towel, then use the dry towel to dry the blade to prevent surface rust.

Why do you want to stay away from stainless? Heat treating concerns? If so that understandable. Otherwise, dealing with these kind of steels in kitchen knives, you should expect to pick up some discoloration.
 
It’s 1095 - you want it to patinate. It’s part of the magic in a plain carbon blade.
Enjoy the change over time intentionally. Or, force it with mustard. Or turn on the ball game, sit down, and sit there a while caressing it with a pickle as you watch it change.
Embrace the change. I look at my grandpa’s worn away butchering knives and the deep patina they have taken on, and wonder at the things they’ve seen.
 
fitzo said:
It’s 1095 - you want it to patinate. It’s part of the magic in a plain carbon blade.
Enjoy the change over time intentionally. Or, force it with mustard. Or turn on the ball game, sit down, and sit there a while caressing it with a pickle as you watch it change.
Embrace the change. I look at my grandpa’s worn away butchering knives and the deep patina they have taken on, and wonder at the things they’ve seen.
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This, part of the charm of a carbon knife is they mature and change over time. Embrace the staining.

If you want some cool colours cut a bit of red meat with it, should get some blue tones
 
After several years in kitchen , 12519 carbon steel


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For thousands of years knife blade formed a patina.

Lean into it and put a mustard patina on it. It will give the blade character and help from rusting.
 
If you are not a Japanese guy wiping the blade after each cut and/or professional chef, stainless all day long.
 
I'm not married, but from what I have heard from the guys, and seen from my own dear mother.... my opinion is stainless is the way to go for a wife knife. ;)
 
Depends on the steel, but when I was making knives from big ol' reclaimed sawmill blades, I could definitely taste and smell the patina interaction when I cut apples, my most common knife food at that time in my life.
 
fitzo said:
It’s 1095 - you want it to patinate. It’s part of the magic in a plain carbon blade.
Enjoy the change over time intentionally. Or, force it with mustard. Or turn on the ball game, sit down, and sit there a while caressing it with a pickle as you watch it change.
Embrace the change. I look at my grandpa’s worn away butchering knives and the deep patina they have taken on, and wonder at the things they’ve seen.
Click to expand...
Thank you for correctly using the verb form of patina - patinate. Very rare. Almost everyone else uses patina as a verb. So shoot me, I'm an English major.
 
David Mary said:
Depends on the steel, but when I was making knives from big ol' reclaimed sawmill blades, I could definitely taste and smell the patina interaction when I cut apples, my most common knife food at that time in my life.
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I can taste the metal when I cut apples with O-1. I have plain carbon for cutting meat and stainless clad carbon for cutting veggies and fruit.
 
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