forced pitting/heavy patina

Another spin off on the same thing. This was a fairly long etch in the clorox after using the blue and then the top polished off with 800 grit. At first glance will give the impression of low layer damascus. Lots of variables can give you many effects. I picked this up from information that Chuck Burrows shared some time ago.


Jerry Fisher

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james terrio said:
Frankly I'm amused by the interest in "faking" a forged surface or leaving it there in the first place. If you really want scale hammered into your blade and nasty coarse spots for moisture/gunk to seep in and cause rust, go for it. I'm a stock removal guy and have enough problems getting imperfections out, without purposely putting more in ;)
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No one is faking a forged finish. The finish is antiquing and quite an art form. For what it's worth, the blades finished in this manor naturally resist rust that many higher finished blades cannot. Leaving forge scale on also acts as a natural rust preventative.

Nothing wrong with "frontier" finish, neotribal style, etc. No more than we can criticize someone for making tactical knives, hunting knives, hawks, machine finishes, buffed finishes, hand sanded finishes, coated blades etc. Which one is perfect and which others are wrong?

Also, I don't know which grocery stores near you sell cold blue, but none around me do. Unless you're counting Wal-Mart.
 
Vann... these are all forge "hammer" finishes... I simply left part of the blade unsanded. Is that the look you are searching for?

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Yup, those are them...I thought you were using a special tipped forging hammer, possibly dipped in "special secret sauce"! Fantastic blades and full of inspiration for alot of us.
 
I do have texturing hammers. One is an old masonary hammer with a chewed up face from decades of hitting rock... another is a small ballpeen that I use to peck away at the surface. Some guys weld old rasps to the face of press dies or hammers, too. If I intend on having a rough finish, I will purposely leave scale bits on the anvil.

I agree with Mr T. that a highly polished/burnished finish is more resitant to corrosion... but at the same time, I have never had a blade rust up or gather gunk in the face texture. Common sense, basic maintenence and actaul use will keep the blade rust free.

Rick
 
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Thanks Rick, I appreciate the compliement!Vann, the hammer I use is an odd looking hammer I picked up at a pawn shop a few years ago.It has a long head and the ends taper to a weird looking diamond shaped cross section.
I'm not sure what the original purpose of the hammer was, but one end had a small section of it broken off.I simply ground it down and shaped it until the end had a single small triangle shape on it.I get the blade fairly hot as I forge it and beat the hell out of it with his hammer to leave a lot of impressions (fairly deep)on both sides.I don't worry too much about making it look perfect, I like to leave a random looking overlapping pattern like you see in the pics.Another way to texture is to weld a lot of crap onto the face of a hammer and whack:jerkit: away with it:D
 
I took an old flattener hammer I used for autobody panel straightening and used my mig welder to put some spatter welds on the face of the hammer after heating the face. It was the first time in my welding history I was purposely welding like crap!..tested it on some soft modeling clay tonight...I think this will fit the bill. Thanks guys.
 
These are all great looking knives folks. I'm also interested in this finish.
james terrio said:
The grocery store. It's vinegar and bleach, dude :D Mustard, lemon juice and many other acidic foodstuffs can bring a nice patina to carbon steel as well.
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The vinegar and bleach- is it soak in vinegar, dry it, then soak it in bleach? Soak it in a mixture of vinegar and bleach (is mixing those even safe?)?
What is a decent ratio?


John M Cohea said:
Here's one with a combination of bleach/ferric etch and forge texture.The texture is done with a special made hammer so that it resembles rasp texture.
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Here's a damascus piece with the same rasp like forge texture.
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John, beautiful knives.
Do you use equal parts of bleach and ferric etching solution? I'm fairly sure that both mixtures would stink and probably not good to breath in,
but do the mixtures create any deadly gasses?
 
Whatever you do,DO NOT mix ferric chloride and bleach together, it will create VERY deadly gases!!!I hang my blade in a container of ferric and soak it for say 10 minutes or so, then hang it in a container of bleach.It is the same thing as using cold blue, the ferric acts as an activator for the bleach.I usually let it work in the bleach for 15 or 20 minutes, take it out and clean it, then repeat for 2 or 3 more cycles until I get the finish I'm after.
 
Pitting carbon steel is easy! Have your wife leave the blade in the sink full of dishwater and/or leave it on the counter covered in guck, no matter how many times you tell her not to! It'll be deeply pitted all over in a week or two.
 
Thank you very much sir. Exactly the type of answer I was looking for. That is what I wanted to make sure of. Dip in one, then the other.
 
Railrider1920 said:
Thank you very much sir. Exactly the type of answer I was looking for. That is what I wanted to make sure of. Dip in one, then the other.
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YES... John is right. The blue/bleach creates poisonous gasses as well. Make sure you let the blue dry completely before dipping into the bleach or it will just wash off in the soak. I keep a bucket of water a few meters away from my bleach tube. The blade comes out of the soak and into the water, where I wipe it down under the surface. This dilutes the reaction so you aren't breathing in the gasses as you clean it. Never in an enclosed room!

Rick
 
Holmesmade said:
Pitting carbon steel is easy! Have your wife leave the blade in the sink full of dishwater and/or leave it on the counter covered in guck, no matter how many times you tell her not to! It'll be deeply pitted all over in a week or two.
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I think my girlfriend has taken this artform to new heights. Truly a Da Vinci of creating new textures in blades.
 
At what point in the process do you do the blue/bleach process? I think this is my last point of confusion on the whole process as I would like to try this on a frontier style with a scandi bevel, but leaving the rough scale/forged steel look on the upper 3/4 of the blade, but still have the entire blade have the "patina" finish as Rick illustrated in his pics...(I hope that wasnt confusing in and of itself!) I guess some of my confusion is that I would need to "see" the steel to temper it, then apply the blue/bleach?
 
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You can just daub the clorox on where you want it. Do not wipe, but daub . This will take a bit longer than being submerged, but will do it. If you do not blue the forge finish, it really should not do much there anyway.
 
Daubing crappy welds on the head of the hammer worked for about five minutes, then failed. I then made a swage with two pieces 2" square 1/4 thick 4140, and upon heating it to orange I then mig welded the same daubs of mis-shaped welding spatter, on both 2" square pieces, and connected with a piece of flat stock I had laying around. Now, all I have to do is place my blade inbetween the swage and hammer away (with the bottom swage square positioned on the anvil). It kinda looked like a pebbles effect on the test piece, I may grind the welds down a bit.
What do you think about heat treat/tempering this swage? not sure.
I may take a another two pieces of that 4140, anneal it, then dremel out some nice scroll work or snake/dragon scales impression, and then heat treat. I wonder if this would transfer over to hot steel?
 
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