Carbon blade patina

TAH

TAH

Joined
Jul 3, 2001
Messages
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Question: When cutting meats and fruits with a carbon blade, the blade gets that blueish stain. If you just let it go, does the blade eventually turn gray? If so, how long? How do you achieve that wonderful gray patina that you see on older carbon blades? How do you get rid of the blue?

Thanks,
Tom
 
Leave it alone and keep using it.

Or stick it in a potato over night.

Eventually it will be a good used grey color and you can hold your head up around other old slippy users.
 
Clean it off with Flitz, dry it off good, and dip it in a glass of lemon juice. Take it out when it's gotten to the shade you like.

I don't bother. My carbon blades just get used and show the varied patinas until eventually they all come together, the same as jackknife says.
 
Ahhhh, another lover of the good ol'e patina! No carbon blade should be without it. Just clean the blade with some Sprite, and cut an apple up. Good luck.
 
Thanks for all your replies. I did cut an apple with it and staining was blue, not gray.

If I use lemon juice or vinegar and achieve the even gray patina, will the blade stay gray the next time I cut meat or fruit or will I still get the blue color?

Just wondering what to expect.

Best,
Tom
 
I think you just have to experiment a bit. I wish it was an exact science. Just play with it a bit.
 
I've had good luck with mustard... Just plain yellow sandwich mustard. If you do it right you can even come up with a nice mottled pattern through repeated application.
 
Lol...and here I'm trying to get the blueish patina but keep ending up with gray.

Seems like different steels react differently too. I happened on a nice blue with shimmering purple patina while using a cable damascus on salmon. Grabbed another carbon blade of unknown steel to get that same patina and it turned brownish gray instead.
 
leatherbird said:
Aren't patina's beautiful. :) :thumbup:
Click to expand...


:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Darn right!

I've got an old Friedrich Herder walnut handle sodbuster that has a rich blue patina with deep purple highlights. One of my best pocket knives.
 
This is the patina on my Opinel, I carved up an apple into a few thousand pieces and it looked this this on the other end.

Its a very old and worn Opinel :)

P1000730.jpg


The photo doesn't do it justice though, as when you hold it up to the light you get pronounced reddish and deep blue spots. Very pretty.

-- Vince.
 
The bluish reflection is an illusion you get when the oxide layer is thin and blue light can penetrate it and be reflected by the shiny steel under the patina. When the patina gets a little thicker it'll be black or grey.
 
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