Handle doesn't patina

A

amp281

Joined
Sep 17, 2012
Messages
82
Can anyone tell me why the handle is so patina resistant on my BK2? I cleaned the knife in goo gone and scrubbed it till it had no contaminants, then dipped it in and out of a glass of boiling apple cider vinegar. The blade turned black almost instantly but the handle barely changed color.
 
Try using some dish soap and hot water on the handle, I think googone is oil biased and might leave a thin film. Or maybe some light scrubbing with steel wool our very fine grit sand paper help. Basically you just need to get down to fresh metal.
 
Nsvens89 said:
Try using some dish soap and hot water on the handle, I think googone is oil biased and might leave a thin film. Or maybe some light scrubbing with steel wool our very fine grit sand paper help. Basically you just need to get down to fresh metal.
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I treated it the same way as the blade and the blade went black in about 2 minutes of dipping, the handle nothing. Other people's patina pictures show a similar pattern, the first bolt hole down to the tip are dark and the rest doesn't change.

Also the pommel chipped a bit when I was hammering it through some wood earlier (getting the knife more forward so I could baton it better). I'm a little disappointed that it did that since the spine took the abuse no problem, but I am impressed at how well it processed about 3 hours of wood for the fireplace. Theres a few rough divots on the pommell that I just sanded smoother.
 
zpstl321 said:
Cause it's plastic. ;)
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Nope the metal chipped, the pommell. I was hammering the back end to get it deeper since the wood was so thick (started at 3 inches and it thickened to 4 inch) so I could baton down on the front.
 
What were you using to "hammer" it with? You should really only use a block of wood or something similar not anything metal like a hammer.
 
Oh also as you can see in my picture below I think that the bar stock that ka-bar machines the knives out of is treated with some kind of bluing before they do any grinding on it. Thus the flats are treated with something that helps prevent rust, this could also resist a patina. If you are still having trouble with getting a patina you might need to take that finish off some how.

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Becker knives get a differential heat treat according to Moose I believe. Harder blade, softer at the handle. That might account for how it reacts differently to "patina" due to different hardness at different areas.
 
I'd expect the opposite effect. chipping on the blade, not the pommel, and darker on the softer metal. But maybe I've got the coloration effect backwards.
 
amp281 said:
wood bro. same thing i used to baton it down. piece of branch.
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Im sorry but i find it kind of hard to believe that wood chipped metal, maybe there was a nail or something in the wood? idk I'm not expert so i cant say for sure
 
Ouch, get some pics of that damage and let's see how bad it is!
 
did you use an *actual* metal hammer? yikes.

yes, goo gone leaves a horrible film. you'll need soap, solvents, and some abrasive action there. it SHOULD patina. nothing magical about it.
 
Bladite said:
did you use an *actual* metal hammer? yikes.

yes, goo gone leaves a horrible film. you'll need soap, solvents, and some abrasive action there. it SHOULD patina. nothing magical about it.
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no for the last time i used a 3" diameter branch from the firepit that fell out of a tree
 
Save the branch and grind that into a knife, it must be some crazy hard chit to chip steel. I am thinking of doing a similar patina on a potbelly, maybe I will just tape off the handle area and not strip it if you don't get it to come close to matching.
 
get the handle to a bright shiney metal using a method you prefer and then try the forced patina. the oxidation that has already set in might be preventing any further oxidation.
 
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