Do you guys force a patina ??

[M. Johnwell]

On the other hand, my M4 Mantra and Maxamet PM2 are very difficult to patina. Especially the M4. I actually tried to force it and barely got any indication of discoloration. I see other M4s with lot more patina then I can get. Is it possible there is some variance in the steel?

I used to have a mantra and couldn’t get it to form a patina at all. My pm2 in m4 gets a patina quite readily. My thoughts are that it has to do with the heat treat. My pm2 is run at about 60.5 whereas the mantra was at 62. Could have something to do with it.

Gratuitous (albeit poor quality) pic:

 

[5-by-5]

 

[5-by-5]

 

[Alberta Ed]

I just let it happen on my carbon steel blades. Each stain tells a story.

 

[Twinsdad]

That's a cool way of looking at it

 

[5-by-5]

This is four years of only steak and Lobster.

 

[jbmonkey]

This is four years of only steak and Lobster.

you have a steak and lobster only dedicated knife? sounds like a good life.

 

[Twinsdad]

Cleaned up the edge some

 

[M. Johnwell]

So this is a small kitchen knife I made my mom a little over a year ago. It’s 1084 and she doesn’t entirely know how to take care of it. Essentially, this is what happens to carbon knives if you don’t maintain them, but oil them on occasion.

It was originally a mirror polished knife by the way.

 

[Danke42]

Cleaned up the edge some

That's one thing I 've noticed about a patina is that it's like using a sharpie on the edge to see were you are sharpening.

 

[Twinsdad]

For sure it showed my how I need to work on the tip lol