Guard - Antique finish or leave alone

[Erin Burke]

Good evening knifemakers. I'm finishing up a knife for my father-in-law, and am trying to decide whether or not to add some sort of antique finish to the guard and pins. This particular guard is made of 1080 and copper with copper/steel mosaic pins. The handle pins are mild steel from Lowes. (Sorry for the poor photo quality)

My original plan involved taping off the blade and adding some sort of antique finish to the guard to match the darker tones of the buckeye handle. Now I'm not so sure. What do y'all think? Should I darken 'er up or leave 'er alone? If you prefer darker, what recipe (& application method) would you use to artificially weather this steel/copper mix in an aesthetically pleasing manner?

Thanks in advance.

Erin

 

[Los Angeles]

First - beautiful knife!

OK, so copper is going to change when it's handled or exposed to the world. It's an extremely reactive metal. When it's left bare, sometimes the inevitable change is lovely and welcome, other times, like in the case of a friend's copper vessel, a big "permanent" fingerprint is the most lasting initial instigator of change. He had to come back and refinish it. It's really a crap shoot if you leave it bare and clean. You just don't know what will come with time.

You can hedge this process by forcing a patina on purpose.

That said, I would recommend putting a finish on the copper no matter what. If you like the bare copper look, then a simple spray coating of clear acrylic might do the trick (but obviously not the most archival - it scratches, etc.) Another option is to patina the metal with liver of sulfur or green patina. once a nice result is reached, you can use something like Johnson's paste wax or the acrylic spray I mentioned earlier to sort of "seal" the look.

Regardless, when the knife is used, whatever finish you choose for you copper, it might require just a little bit of maintenance or at the minimum an acceptance of change over time. Think of it just like scratches on a blade. it's going to break in a little, and sometimes that's OK.

 

[Mace]

Hey Erin,
Great looking knife! Is that a hamon I see?
How about a nice mustard patina on the 1080?
The copper will patina on its own....or you could rub some urine on it to darken it!
Mace

 

[johnggrg]

Great looking knife. John

 

[Erin Burke]

....or you could rub some urine on it to darken it!

Disclaimer: Do NOT do this while sitting at your desk at work... I'll just make you look creepy.

Is that a hamon I see?
Mace

Yeah Mace... one of my nicest hamons to date. :thumbup: I'll post better photos when finished.


Are there any methods of "forced patina" that'll work well for both the steel and the copper. I've done a mustard patina before on steel, but don't know what the results would look like on copper.

Futher, anyone have any unique methods for application patina agent (mustard or whatever) that gives a nice aged/textured appearance? I was thinking about cotton balls or q-tips.

Thanks again.

Erin

 

[Erin Burke]

I'd like to bump this one... to see if there are any other cool ideas for finishing this knife/fittings. At this point I'm thinking of doing some antiquing/darkening to the guard AND the spine of the blade wrapping all the way through the guard and around the tapered full tang (back to the guard). At this point I'm thinking about dabbing mustard w/ a q-tip, but am up for other ideas/recipes/application methods.

Erin