Blade patina, yea or nay?

Absintheur

Absintheur

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I have read much in here about blade patina, both naturally occurring and induced and I am not sure I understand why it is desirable. I will start by saying I grew up with a Master Sergeant for a father, a career military man in other words. Our shoes for school were shined nightly, our slacks were pressed, crew cuts were the norm. ANd tools were always treated with the utmost care and respect. After cutting and splitting wood the saw and axe were always cleaned and oiled, sharpened if needed, wrenches were always wiped clean and put back where they belonged, nothing was abused or misused. And knives...my first knife was a barlow, it was kept clean and shiny at all times. Dad would often ask to see it and if it came out of the pocket dirty you could count on not seeing it for some time. Today it still looks almost NIB as it was kept polished and oiled at all times. From growing up under my Dad's supervision I went to St John's Military Academy where again spit and polish was demanded, and after that I was in the Military myself.

Today my knives are cleaned at night when they come out of my pockets, carbon steel blades get a quick polish with Ren Wax or if needed Flitz. To me bright and shiny equals proper care of my tools, patina equals misuse and neglect. Shoving a knife into an onion to deliberately induce discoloration is tantamount to intentional damage to me. Other than the obvious anal retentive jokes, does anyone else take care of their knives in this manner, keeping things as bright and shiny as possible? I am not knocking anyone's thoughts here, I am simply trying to understand this.

At what point does patina turn into damage to the steel?
Why do you consider patina desirable?
Is it just knives or do you let other things, such as your car, develop a patina?
 
patina offers some protection against rust, my Grandfather, even though he only had one knife, told me to stick the blade of my first carbon steel pocketknife into a 'tater and leave it over night.
Once you get rust and pitting, I would consider it damage to the steel.

btw. I share your view about tools being kept in order, and I do keep my tools clean and oiled, but the blades on my knives, I just wipe off sharpen, and oil the joint.

Peter
 
I always keep my knives wiped down, oiled, and sharpened, but I like a patina on carbon steel. This is both for the slight rust preventative, as well as the aesthetics. A patina, especially on a traditional folder, bespeaks long use and that nice folksy feeling of a well-used tool.
 
I never do any thing to the blade other than Clean, Oil, and Sharpen.

What ever patina it does get is with time and use.



I think going out of your way to put a patina on a blade, is like buying a pair of sand washed jeans with holes in them that you did not do by wearing them yourself.:)
Thats just me.
IMHO
 
My suits are pressed, shoes highly shined, tools sharpened, oiled and well cared for, but my carbon knives...that's a different matter. The joints and bone/stag/horn scales are oiled, but the blades I wipe clean and dry--no protective oil or cloth.

For me it goes back to the stockman I inherited when my grandpa died. It came to me well cared for, razor sharp, and with a beautiful patina on all three blades. That patina is a result of grandpa's use of the knife. He left his mark on that knife and there is no other knife in the world with that exact patina. It is personal to him.

I like all my carbon blades like that. Sure, it offers some protection against rust, but more than that the particular patina they develop reflects me and my use of that knife--what I cut and how I cut it. It also lets me see at a glance that it is NOT stainless, which I generally don't care for, and it sets off the gleaming edge quite nicely. When my kids inherit my knives, I want them to have my association with the knife in all the scratches, the sharp edges, and the patina itself.

I think many of our fathers/grandfathers (not all) thought of the knife as a tool--one that was well cared for but not made too much of a fuss over. They kept them sharp, oiled the joints, but let patina take over the steel. I compare that to the Statue of Liberty. Sure, they could put crews on her and keep her polished and gleaming like new copper, but there's something about that green-blue patina that makes her even more gorgeous. My blades are like that.

In your case, with your family's military history, maybe keeping them gleaming IS honoring your heritage. May I suggest you let one knife patina and see how you like it? Either it will look neglected and unloved to you, or it will take on a beauty like Liberty herself. :D
 
It is possible it is a family thing, I have my great grandfather's Kutmaster Hawkbill and the blade is still mirror bright. I suppose I could buy a new knife that has no meaning to me and let the blade go, would be hard to do but I know I couldn't do it to any of my friends that I have had for years.

As far as rust protection...that is what the cleaning and oiling prevents. Ren Wax in particular leaves a rust preventing coating on the steel and actually helps it cut smoother.
 
My carbon kitchen knives with 40 years of good use and care have a patina.
I use them, rinse them with water and then polish them dry with a cotton cloth.
When held to the light, the blades are colored from blue to lines of pink, yellow and green.
Why these colors, I don't know.

I do not consider a patina on carbon blades a tarnish.
But I can fully understand polishing to the bare steel and then oiling as a basic maintenence against rust.
 
I like a patina for the little bit of protection it will give the blade. Its still just a tool, so I don't want to sit there and shine the blade every night. Besides, a non-patina blade will start to show rust spots in a hot humd or damp emvironment, and rust spots are pitting the steel. To me thats not acceptable. Pits are actual damage to the surface of the steel.

Most watermen kept a tin bucket of old butcher knives under the work table for the cutting of bait. These old butcher knives were not rusty, but did have a heavy dark grey patina that did seem to offer some protection against corosion. They just got wiped down at the end of the day and dropped back in the bucket.

I vote patina.
 
I couldn't have said it better, jackknife. :cool: Patina :thumbup:

I think this is a first for me though, seeing someone characterize patina as "misuse and neglect". I reckon all us rednecks(or patinanecks) and pluggers could be wrong. :confused: If lovin patina is wrong, I don't wanna be right. :D
 
When used for peeling apples the steel seems to leave a slight metallic aroma until the blade starts to darken.I guess it is protecting the blade from the acids in fruit,the same way it keeps it rusting from pocket sweat.I think it was Ed Fowler who compared a patina on steel to a sun tan on skin.I tried several quick methods to darken a few blades but they just did not look right to me,so off they came and now they get them like Smith Barney earns money.The Old Fashioned Way.
 
willis said:
I tried several quick methods to darken a few blades but they just did not look right to me,so off they came and now they get them like Smith Barney earns money.The Old Fashioned Way.
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I maintain that the two are not mutually exclusive.

If you take a brand new carbon steel knife and patina the blades right away and then use the knife as an EDC for 10 years, it's going to look the same after that 10-year-period as if you'd never put on the "quick" patina. The only difference is that the "quick patina" version will have had fewer problems with rust in the early days.

As another example, take my Grandad's old Robeson two-blade jack that he carried for years and years. It's got that rich dark patina that so many of our grandfathers' knives had - just a thing of beauty. To see it now, you'd never ever know that he was one of the "stick 'er in a potato for a night to knock the shine off the blades" kind of guys. Beginning in the '20s, he spent his working life installing glass in Miami, FL where it gets mighty hot and humid. Corrosion can be an issue down there so anything that'll help ward off rust is welcome - it's not a matter of aesthetics.
 
I live in Louisiana close to the coast, and so here you let a patina develop, or you get rust and pitting a lot quicker. I usually help mine along a little. A shiny carbon blade can rust here in a day's time. A patina does offer some protection.
 
Yea to authentic historic patina.

Nay to artificial patina.

I do like to see the various patina results the other BladeForums guys come up with, but I wouldn't do it to one of my own knives. Just my preference.
 
Bob W said:
I do like to see the various patina results the other BladeForums guys come up with, but I wouldn't do it to one of my own knives. Just my preference.
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The top one is fully natural(sorry for the oil residue on tang and tip)
And the Opinel #8 had a 'tader induced patina a few years back.
k640patinayb1.jpg
 
I must admit that I can't tell the difference. But if they were mine, I would know that one wasn't an 'earned' patina. :)

BTW, an excellent choice of specimens, an Old Timer and Opinel. You won't find a more enthusiastic fan of those two brands than myself. :thumbup:
 
Is it just knives or do you let other things, such as your car, develop a patina?
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My hair has begun to develop a warm silver/gray patina. Its earned though. Nothing forced.
 
mnblade said:
All the shotguns I've had over the years have had a patina (on guns it's called bluing).
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I don't fuss with factory applied finishes, I even have a knife that was factory darkened. I wipe the guns I carry down at the end of each day, I do the same with my knives. As I said my great-grandfather's Kutmaster has always had a brilliant shine on it. and it was a miners pocket knife.

I didn't say patina was abuse or neglect, I said for me to do so would feel that way to me. I just wasn't raised to allow that to build up on my knives.
 
As a matter of practicality, I agree that one should patina a blade a bit at first to protect it. I did that with my Brand new Case CV Medium Stockman. For those of you who don't know, I am an alligator wrestler here in Florida, which means I am wet, sandy, and sweaty for the majority of my day. When I go into the water to get the gator, although the pool is knee deep, the gators splash up a storm and invariably soak us. Even if i only do one gator wrestling show a day, and it's the 10AM show, I am still wet for a good portion of the day. Plus, I am sweaty for most of the day as well. All these elements, as well as Florida's legendary humidity, makes for optimal conditions for a carbon blade to rust and pit, and quickly. I had my Case for one day and it already developed a line of dotted rust spots on the nail nicks of the blades, pn the side facing in to my leg. Well, I came home and applied some Naval Jelly, to remove the rust, and it left behind a nice, grey patina on all the blades. Well, good. I need all the help i can get keeping these blades rust free.I did the same with my CV Soddie a few years ago, but used Vinegar on that, and the patina changed over the years. It's just a practical thing, I guess, depending on your environment.
To each his own.
 



Blade is 1084, I carry it daily and use it often for all types of tasks. I like the patina and do not feel I am abusing the blade because of it. I wipe the blade down after use and regularly apply mineral oil to the blade (I use it for food prep from time to time). I enjoy taking care of my knives and most have carbon blades.
 
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