Forced Patina vs Natural Patina. Here is my Behring custom.

I

IXLR8

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Feb 1, 2009
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This is a James Behring made knife. It's a high carbon, convex grind, 01 tool steel.
I've never had a knife this sharp. No knife I have ever owned has come close to this thing, as sharpness goes.

Anyway, after light use, Ducks, Rabbit, fish and stuff.........yes even some kitchen use, it started to form its patina.
After taking advice from some of the old schoolers, I was letting it form its own natural patina. And the natural patina looked like CRAP. Pure crap.

The knife was fairly expensive, and the natural patina was not even, looked funny and just wasn't appealing at all. It just made the knife look terrible.
Sooooooo, I decided to force a patina on it. I cleaned it up, degreased it, and went to town on it.

Everyone is different, I know, but I'm of the opinion now that a natural patina is definitely NOT the way to go.
Conversely, the forced patina and the technique that I used, made this knife gorgeous. Better than even when it was brand new.
Blues , greens , PINKS when the light hits it at certain angles are just beautiful. You just can't get this with a natural patina.

I purchased another Behring knife recently , and it's probably gonna have a patina forced on it too.
So here are the photos. What do you guys think?


8KPT1Pw.jpg


And below we can see the rainbow coloring when the blade is turned into the right light (Sun light).
This was right after I finished and cleaned the knife up and dried it off. Before I put a light coat of oil on it.
w6OBUON.jpg


All cleaned up with a light coat of olive oil
bdVSIx6.jpg
 
The beauty of a patina is it's lack of beauty and symmetry. I have done patinas on quite a few knives and I have some knives several times with various methods.

My preferred method after that experimentation is to do a very light patina with lemon juice to help give it a little corrosion protection, and then just use it for a while.

Just a word of advice, deer blood does patina, it rusts...aggressively. Ha ha learned that one the hard way but nothing a scotch brite pad and warm water couldn't fix.

Your knife looks great. I haven't gotten any of mine to show that much color variation, but all my carbon steel knives are cheap Moras. Good job! And excellent choice in knives.
 
Honestly? I like it a lot. And to me a natural patina is great for some but I would take your forced patina any day over some of the natural ones I have seen. Nice job!
 
Sorry for the slight derailment, but does anyone know if D2 will take a patina?
 
I like it, looks very one of a kind-ish. It's a great design too.
jstrange said:
Sorry for the slight derailment, but does anyone know if D2 will take a patina?
Click to expand...

That question has been asked and answered dozens if not hundreds of times already. Yes, it can take a patina. Try searching the MTE section, where this thread will soon be moving to.
 
thanks fellas.
I really like the way it came out.
Looks better than it did new.
 
Very nicely done! Really like the pattern you chose. I've never seen that pinkish-yellow shade, could I ask what recipe you used? thanks. R
 
RevDevil said:
I like it, looks very one of a kind-ish. It's a great design too.


That question has been asked and answered dozens if not hundreds of times already. Yes, it can take a patina. Try searching the MTE section, where this thread will soon be moving to.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I guess I should have searched first.
 
machineage said:
Very nicely done! Really like the pattern you chose. I've never seen that pinkish-yellow shade, could I ask what recipe you used? thanks. R
Click to expand...

It may be blade steel specific, and probably is.
I doubt that it can be duplicated. Every knife will have a similar but different pattern the way I do it. No two will be exactly alike.
The next one may be better than this, or not as nice. To get the pinks and blues the lighting angle must be right. But granted this has nothing to do with the technique used.
I may have discovered something along the way, however, that was key to bringing out the colors. I won't know for sure until I Patina this knife. But I am confident.
I have a strong feeling that this one is going to be jaw dropping.

MmAJrcZ.jpg
 
I like those patinas, but I have concerns with patinas in general. The forced ones that are "heavy" or "darker" tend to provide resistance through the material you're cutting and also tend to scratch easily. Are your patinas durable?
 
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