can this be done without harming the blade?

J.McDonald Knives

J.McDonald Knives

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i was watcihng Eragon again and thought of a cool idea for a blade. is it possible to stain a blade permanently with a dark red almost blood red without destroying the blade and still be able to use it in every day life? if so how is it done? what is the process? what chemicals are used? can you also do it in other colors? will it hold up to every day use without scratching the finish or chipping the color off?
 
Blade coatings come in many colors.However, I don't know about blood red. It is a coating, and will scratch and wear off with use. While it might look interesting on a fantasy blade, it would be of no use to 'stain' a working blade blood red. Knives are tools, not toys.
Stacy
 
i know they are tools and not toys. but who says you cant have a folder with a pretty blade. red and black are my favorite colors and i want to make a knife that has a blood red blade, black bolsters, and a rosewood handle or another wood with a deep rich red color. liners and lock spring would all be black too. same with the pins. i just need to figure out how to get the color into the metal to where it wont come out with use.
 
But the colors you like in Krylon spray paint. If it scratches off just touch it up again.
 
DuraKote is a great coating. It is tough (yes they all scratch off in time) and comes in any color you can think of. You can also use it on all handle and spacer materials. It sticks to anything and always looks the same. The colors do not smear or bleed into eachother so it is possible to do detailed camo patterns on a whole knife or whatever (Iknow, mall ninja city). If you want to play with coatings try this one. All you need is the ccoating, a thinner and a airbrush of some kind.
 
In short nothing will give you a red blade all the way through the steel and thats what it would take to stay consistent through usage sharpening any pitting, nicks ect. You can anodize titanium and some people have gotten some pretty nice tatanium blades but titanium in genral doesnt harden to well. They are using some tricks to get good preformance out of the titanium. Either way anodizing will wear off and need to be redone. Even the most profesional powder coats wear off. All the gun coatings and bluings wil wear off (at least all of them you can do yourself, there are a few specialized coating places that do metalic finishes that can be very hard but would impede sharpening the blade). And I dont know whats needed to do the DLC coatings but they wear and scratch to. In short anything you use to make the blade red will wear or scratch revealing raw steel. I dont think any chemical reaction that would stain the blade to a good depth to such an extreme color change could be good for the steel but I am no metalurgist, not even close. Any superficial stain such as a patina on carbon steels is not to deep but scratches can be removed with lemon juice but its not a very red color. Sorry I cant be of more help but you would see alot of colored blade knives if this was possible. My Wife would kill for a pink blade that didnt scratch or wear (even uglier to her than plain steel). There are some crazy collors in blued dammascus but that is shelfqueen work not everyday users.
 
thanks. so i guess if i want it red then i will have to find the best and longest lasting coating i can find and put it on the blade and all the metal i want colored. how good are the ones you have to put into the oven? im sure one of these days someone will come up with a way to change the color of the steel without ruining it.
 
Try the DuraCoat from Lauer. They have the red you want and this is an air dry. they have both stock red and a burgundy

http://www.lauerweaponry.com/

Also I was thinking that you could add a coloring compound to powdered steel but I bet it would juts burn or bake out at manufacturing temps.
 
I dont think there are any, I was just thinking if there was one that would be a way to add color to steel. I dont think anyone makes dyes that survive 2k heat and I dont know alot of materials outside metal that handle it thta well besides creamics. I dont think ceramic glazes are ment to be fired that high either. Maybe some metoirite dust =P nah most meteors I have seen just look like shiney iron, hehe.
 
I would bet the coating would hold up better if it was recessed where you wanted to paint it

it would look damn good in a fuller.
 
Another suggestion - You can use an enamel from most art or jeweler suppliers. It paints on and bakes at 300 - 325 degrees F. What you are doing is adding glass to metal.
 
You could just go with the coating for your red knife, and carry a second little knife to cut anything real scratchy or abrasive... thus preserving the coating for as long as possible.

What I would do personally if I wanted a black and red color scheme, is just have my blade be darkly patina'd (I had a piece of 1095 I let get really rusty, used a wire wheel to take the rust off, and it was nearly black), and then have red handles that really pop. (Dymondwood comes in red and is cheap. But many people don't like it)
 
i still would like the red blade. eventually i will have experimented with enough stuff to hopefully come up with a solution. if i ever come up with a solution to change the color of a blade i will be sure to post the ingredients and the process.
 
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