Get A Deep Even Black Patina On 1095 Carbon Steel

Looks great :thumbup:

I've found that some knives seem to take a darker patina better than others. My Bokers get a lot darker than my Case CV knives which don't seem to go past light grey.
Have you tried this method with any Case CV knives and are the results the same?
 
Modoc ED said:
White vinegar will work Fausto. Here is an excerpt from a post I ran some time ago regarding a harness jack that I have. Note the coloring/patina of the blade after ...... well, read the excerpt and look at the picture.

On Saturday, 22 January 2011 I went to a ranch roughly 25-miles South of town to help butcher pigs. The rancher provided breakfast and lunch. For lunch the main course was of course pork -- pork chops, pork roast, pulled pork. I like a little white vinegar sprinkled over my pork and since I only had this Harness Jack with me, I used it to cut the vinegared pork. This is what the knife looked like the next day -- a heavy, even, patina from the white vinegar and I'm sure from some pig skinning/blood.

gecnfharnessjackburntst.jpg


I can't comment on balsamic vinegar. I've never tried it and haven't seen the results of anyone else using it.
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Balsamic vinegar can give a nice dark patina as well. I used it on a 1075 Hudson Bay camp knife. Not even a hot dip or rub, just put it on a paper towel wrapped around the blade and left it in the garage for a while. Made a very cool pattern.

I will have to try the hot rub with the apple vinegar.
 
WSB - I used the silver polish to lighten any uneven dark areas to a more uniform gray if the first attempt with the vinegar didn't yield optimal results. The tap water neutralization increases your chances of getting uniform results the first time around, but a silver polish touch up can still be useful to clean up any unevenness if you decide to take another pass with the vinegar. Think of the polish as a gray "primer" step before making a second attempt.
 
I've got my first quality pocket knife on the way (GEC #57 570311 - Natural Stag Serial Number 13). I stumbled upon this forum and thread looking for ideas to patina ..... this really looks great. Thanks for sharing - I'll post pics when i get to it.

Thanks again.
Ryan
 
Hi Rick, the knife in your op looks fantastic, how stable is the patina? as Corey has mentioned with stropping, but also when using it for say example getting through tough cardboard etc, how does the Patina handle that, in other words does it go back to shinier steel?
I have used Apple Cider in the past on just one knife, but your repeated process locks in the patina to a super dark finish, it looks incredible.
 
Just for general discussion,different types of vinegar have different Acid Content I think. This might or mightnot have bearing on this technique.

Has anybody ever done this to an all steel knife? Steel Liners,Pins and Bolsters like the #15 Boys Knife? Any suggestions there of?
 
I used Muriatic Acid to etch stainless steel. It works nicely you just have to leave it alone for a while (about 25-30 min.) It will give
the blades a nice dark grey color. Here's the CASE stainless steel Wharncliffe Trapper I used it on. It needs to be mixed 3-1 (Muriatic Acid X 3 + Water X 1 = Etched blades)

Jason



 
Rick - would you recommend doing one blade at a time or doing all at the same time (back spring too) ?
 
Great demonstration! I love the results. I've experimented with boiling vinegar for patinas and it's definitely some ripe stuff! If at all possible, I'd recommend trying to boil it outside to keep it out of the house altogether.

:)
 
That looks great! Im going to do it to my old Luger P08!....nah! But I will be trying it this weekend on some knives!
 
Thanks for the great writeup!

I learned a lot. Specifically about cleaning the blade before vinegaring (I used alcohol) polishing down the patina between coats (I stropped on plain leather), and also to soak the blade and rinse in running water, instead of wiping with paper towel. (I agree rinsing is the way to go)

some pics of my first attempts at vinegar patina, before I read this thread. I used hot apple cider vinegar, but only did a single coat, by dipping the blade in the hot vinegar for about 2 minutes, and rinsing under running water. I got a very even grey patina.

If I had read this thread first, I might have done the hot dip and rinse several more times.. I may still go back to it, as my patina is not set in stone.

I have been carrying this Pemberton for 1 month.

Here it is fresh out of the box
941FFB21-4500-45E3-A346-F53FA63F0233-5093-000003385BE32A28_zps88d1d071.jpg


First hot vinegar wash on brand new blade, produces very even patina
B763AAB6-0C43-4427-85B1-2C2B687D7888-8790-0000068548B5261B_zps0604c3ec.jpg


Second Vinegar wash dabbed on with qtip produces irregular patterns because it lifts the previous patina and moves it around
93F2B3E8-B9C8-403F-AF5F-19EE6497FEED-8790-00000685292A722E_zps734c9752.jpg


After some chipotle marinated steak (chipotle contains vinegar also). The changes it produced are not immediately visible in this pic.
D28D1169-8FCE-43F5-A638-C058F5CBDAB2-8790-00000689A263BB09_zpsad20acfa.jpg


A couple days after the steak. This colorful type of patina is what I see if I wipe the knife on dry cloth before the picture. The colors go away when I oil the blade, and become a more even grey. Wiping the blade on leather, removes excess patina, revealing mostly gray also.
2D0DFB2B-5E72-48F4-B0CB-6347BE9DF3A7-8790-0000068024152272_zps25faa420.jpg


for more info about patinas, see this thread too
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/950056-Lets-see-your-Patinas!/page9
it has examples of damaged blades from leaving a lime on a blade overnight. Striped patina from leaving the blade in an onion, and other photos of natural patinas..
 
Sorry to bring up an old thread, but I had a question about this. For your Muriatic dip (or the vinegar method for Rick the OP), did the acid/vinegar get up into the joint? If so, what was the effect? Will getting the acid/vinegar onto bone or stag mess it up? I'm thinking about trying this and I want to get the patina up onto the tang, but I don't want it to mess up the joint, or get into the bone or stag and mess it up.

bakerg2g said:
I used Muriatic Acid to etch stainless steel. It works nicely you just have to leave it alone for a while (about 25-30 min.) It will give
the blades a nice dark grey color. Here's the CASE stainless steel Wharncliffe Trapper I used it on. It needs to be mixed 3-1 (Muriatic Acid X 3 + Water X 1 = Etched blades)

Jason



Click to expand...
 
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