Blood Stains on a Northwoods Custom 2003

D

Dingeringer

Joined
Oct 13, 2022
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I recently bought a really nice Northwoods fixed blade Custom 2003 knife from a friend, not having a clue anything about the knife or the manufacturer. I began to learn that it was a very well respected knife making company and that the knife might be worth several times what I paid for it.
This weekend I killed a buck and used the knife, which I assumed was stainless steel, to clean the deer. I put it with the rest of the knives I used that day in the floorboard of the truck to be cleaned up when I got home. Well the Northwoods knife has very noticable blood stains after cleaning it up with soap and water.

Is there any good method for removing those stains?
 
I assume that it's actually rust. Dry blood is brown. Rust is brown.

What's the finish of the knife like? You can use something like a lansky eraser block to remove minor surface corrosion, but if your knife is supposed to have a shiny finish then it's going to dull that finish. You're going to have to polish the knife afterwards if you want to restore the knife to a shiny finish again.

If it's beyond just minor surface corrosion, then you're just going to have to sand it right off the bat. There's youtube videos on that. Once you're done sanding then you finish if off with some polish such as Flitz.

Once you've gotten rid of all the corrosion, then you may want to consider adding a forced patina to the blade. Lots of people do that with carbon steel knives.
 
Carbon steels (many Northwoods are 1095) stain with use. This staining is known as patina. As long as it isn't red rust, it's nothing to be concerned about.
If it IS red rust it's can be removed.
If you don't like patina, it can often be polished off (depending on the extent, residual staining can remain - this takes more effort to remove and will likely reduce the value more than the natural patina
I'll post some images of knives with patina in the morning
 
It’s not brown or red. It’s more of a faint gray. The knife finish was highly polished and new looking. The blood was left on the blade overnight. To me a patina would be on the whole blade. This is just where globs of blood was left overnight. I was going to post a photo, but it didn’t like my URL.
 
Fitz, Simichrome, or Nevr-Dull might make the staining much less noticeable. If that doesn't work to your liking, it would need a full repolishing by going through multiple abrasive grits, etc..... If you've never done anything like that before, it would be best to see if a knifemaker could do it.
 
Faint grey is typical of the oxidation type known as patina. On a highly polished blade it forms more slowly, on areas of prolonged contact. Leaving blood on the blade overnight caused the discoloration to that specific area...but it would happen over time, anyway, unless you diligently worked to prevent it. Patina also helps prevent red rust; so many of us don't try to avoid it
Some examples showing the different ways it can appear, depending on steel, level of polish, type of use, etc
View attachment 2408020
 
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Thanks to all who took the time to respond. Based on responses, I think I will just accept it as natural for that steel and live with it.
 
Fun fact. Blood contains iron. Iron that'll rust.

You can remove the iron with vinegar. But....blood also has copper in it and that's the hard to remove stuff.

How do I know? I found a folding knife out at the lake. Where I found it, it had been thrown into the lake from some distance. Low lake level while fishing on some rocks. What looked like a moss covered chunk of wood was a knife. With a strange looking funky coating. All over the knife.

Vinegar bath to start. Left it in for a day. It removed the moss and the, 'rust'. What it didn't remove was the copper.

Long story short. Someone threw a bloody knife in the lake. Taking the time to close the knife before throwing it.


Notice the copper stain on the blade.


 
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Nice variety! :cool:

hhmoore said:
Faint grey is typical of the oxidation type known as patina. On a highly polished blade it forms more slowly, on areas of prolonged contact. Leaving blood on the blade overnight caused the discoloration to that specific area...but it would happen over time, anyway, unless you diligently worked to prevent it. Patina also helps prevent red rust; so many of us don't try to avoid it
Some examples showing the different ways it can appear, depending on steel, level of polish, type of use, etc
View attachment 2408020
Click to expand...
 
hhmoore said:
Faint grey is typical of the oxidation type known as patina. On a highly polished blade it forms more slowly, on areas of prolonged contact. Leaving blood on the blade overnight caused the discoloration to that specific area...but it would happen over time, anyway, unless you diligently worked to prevent it. Patina also helps prevent red rust; so many of us don't try to avoid it
Some examples showing the different ways it can appear, depending on steel, level of polish, type of use, etc
View attachment 2408020
Click to expand...
What steel is that Para?
That's an absolutely gorgeous patina it's got going.
 
If you at least wipe it off, instead of leaving globs of blood on it, the patina will be more uniform and not blotchy.

Pictures would help, you have to use a third party hosting site
 
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