Forced patinas!!

[ocnLogan]

Patinas are created from the natural corrosive qualities of acidic foods (generally... Mustard, ketchup, vinegar, grapes, etc). Its actually just controlled "brown" rust that protects the blade, rather than red rust which is damaging.

Blueing uses all sorts of chemicals to do basically the same thing (in concept). True blueing actually usually uses an acid etching, heat and some other stuff, so its a way more involved process than just patina-ing. Cold blueing is much simpler, as its just a wipe on process (kinda like staining wood if you've done that), but it is still a chemical solution, unlike a patina.

Thats the basics, but I'm sure someone will come in and shed some light on the topic .

 

[Dferg10]

Op - Cool thread and nice work by all contributors.

 

[Cold Kill]

Isn't a patina much less obtrusive on the blade than blueing? Like coloring and ability to be cleaned off, along with food safety?

 

[A.P.F.]

Fume Bluing > Hot Bluing > Natural Patina > Cold Bluing. With all of these methods, best effects are achieved with a coating of oil in addition. An old trick we used to do, was to heat the metal up to a 'straw' color and rub it down with a pure wool rag.

 

[ocnLogan]

Isn't a patina much less obtrusive on the blade than blueing? Like coloring and ability to be cleaned off, along with food safety?

My understanding is that blueing is similar in durability to a patina (at least cold blueing), so either one can wear down and have to be redone. The food safety though is different. The patina has got it hands down on that one .

 

[SaturatedShadow]

Cold Blue

It does make the blade smell bad.

Wear, to me, seems to be very similar to a patina.

 

[tjiscooler]

They are pretty different. Bluing is done with some serious chemicals and leaves a bluish/black tint to the steel. Natural/forced patinas are basically controlled rusting. It essentially ages the knife through oxidation leaving a protective finish. I would rather cut food finished with mustard versus copper sulfate... To be honest ive never done any bluing and am not an authority on it so I recommend you look further into it. It makes a great look though!

 

[ibute21]

So I decided to force a patina on the M4 Manix2. I carry it at work and in my line of work I sweat a lot, so something had to to be done about the small spots of rust popping up. Cleaned it up, currently using mustard and Tabasco to force a patina. I'll post pics tomorrow, as it's forcing right now.

 

[Cold Kill]

15 minutes wrapped in a rice vinegar soaked tissue. Tomorrow I will soak it again, trying balsamic vinegar.