Even Patina

Z

Zimbabwe

Joined
Jun 4, 2012
Messages
120
Decided I'm going to force a patina on my BHK Patch Knife, I'm looking to get an even dark grey or black patina on it. I stuck my mora In a potato for a day and it left a patina, but it was pretty messy. Any suggestions?

Also, the knife has Micarta scales and if it's a liquid like vinegar, will it mess up the scales?
 
Blade down in a glass of white vinegar. Start at about an hour & guage your darkness from there in 10 minute encrements. Won't bother the scales except maybe make 'em look washed out. Nothing a little use & your skin oils won't fix!
 
I once forced a patina on an opinel by wetting a paper towel with vinegar and wrapping it around the blade. As I recall it was pretty even and very dark (I did several rounds of it for 10-20 minutes each), but I lost that knife so I can't look at it now. That might be a way to try to keep the vinegar off of the handle- the tricky part is where the handle meets the blade, you could try masking off the front edge of the micarta with tape.

One thing that will help the evenness is to thoroughly degrease the blade beforehand with acetone, to prevent any grease/residue from interfering with the acid reaction.
 
I got a very dark patina on my BK14 with mustard. The places where the mustard was thinnest actually came out darker.

Jordan
 
a patina is caused by the oxidation of the steel, so it would be darker in the thinner parts :)
also once done soaking for 10 min or so as others have said, be sure to leave it out for a few min, or just take a blow drier to it until completely dry, and repeat until desired color is achieved ;)
 
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