Blueing Stainless with Alka-Seltzer

C

ConBon

Joined
Jan 17, 2012
Messages
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I was recently working at an elementary school science night, and was scoring the backs of Alka-Seltzer tablets so that i could break them cleanly. I scored them with the flathead screwdriver on my Swiss Army Officer, and today I noticed that it was blued on the tip where it scored the tablets. I just wanted to pass this info on so anyone who wants to blue their stainless can. I have not tested this, but the knife is brand new, and nothing else has contacted it.
 
this might take a while, being that i have never uploaded pics on this site.
 
ConBon said:
this might take a while, being that i have never uploaded pics on this site.
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Easiest way is to get yourself a photo-hosting account from photobucket or imageshack, and paste the URL of each image there into your post here, with [IMG] and [/IMG] tags wrapped around it.

I'm somewhat curious too, about how the bluing looks from the Alka-Seltzer. Did some reading on that stuff; it's got 'anhydrous citric acid' as one of the key ingredients in it. I'm betting that's what's doing most of the work, as it reacts with the iron in the steel. Stainless steel manufacturers use citric acid (as well as other means) to passivate the steel, which is supposed to make it more resistant to corrosion, producing an essentially clear oxide layer under a very tightly-controlled chemical process. When not-so-tightly controlled, citric acid will be much more aggressive to the iron, and other 'impurities' in the mix are apparently responsible for the discoloring. At least, this is how I interpret what I've read about it so far... ;)
 
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Conbon1337
A little hard to tell, but you can see the different color changes. Also, if one were to experiment a little, they could soak a blade in Alka-Seltzer and get a deeper and more pemanent blueing.
 
This is something I'm really interested in being as I already have a knife I'm experimenting with. But the problem is your picture doesn't show up.

I can wait a little while because I still have to *re*heat treat it, whoever had it before must have stuck it in a camp fire or something....
 
Ok, I can just barely see it, if I can find an extra piece of steel somewhere I'll see what soaking it does and post pictures if I can find it.

Edit: Found a piece of steel ($1 knife from Wally World), but I forgot I don't have any Alka-Seltzer... I'll try and pick some up tomorrow or Tuesday.
 
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Interesting, If I had any Alkaseltzer I'd give this a try with a cheap knife of some sort. I've got plenty of crappy knives for such purposes.
 
I tried it, didn't really have any effect for me. Maybe it was a reaction to something in your steel?
 
dryhands said:
I tried it, didn't really have any effect for me. Maybe it was a reaction to something in your steel?
Click to expand...

Did you try it dry, or mixed in water?

If dissolved in water, it wouldn't surprise me if the acid would be too dilute or inert to affect steel, especially stainless steel. If I recall, I think the 'anhydrous citric acid' reacts with one of the other chemicals (sodium bicarbonate, a.k.a. baking soda) in Alka-Seltzer, to produce the 'fizz' when water is added. That reaction will likely neutralize most/all of the acidity. The stuff is made for human consumption, so I'm betting it's not that strong to begin with.
 
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