Hard time getting a patina on a OT

Try boiling hot vinegar. Dip the blade in and pull it out. Then let the vinegar evaporate. Repeat this several times and you should begin to see a patina forming- if the blade is not stainless. Rinse under cold water to neutralize.
 
pinnah said:
There is a fact sheet that was produced by Schrade from the mid 80s that asserts that Schrade+ is/was 440A. My understanding is that they changed to 420HC towards the very end. It is not at all clear to me what the earlier, pre-Schrade+ stainless steels were that Schrade was using. You can find numerous posts by folks claiming some of their earlier Schrades are 440C. Clear as mud, which just adds to the mystery and appeal of Schrade collecting.
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Between those three (420HC, 440A, 440C), that's not a bad assortment to choose from. Years ago, due to my own ignorance and lack of sharpening skills of any kind at that time, I used to view these as 'mediocre', for the most part (though 440C had a pretty good rep, for good reason). But I've grown to like them all. They take fine edges very easily, and are very simple to maintain (now that I know better ;)).
 
I hadn't previously messed around too much with 'forced' patina on my blades, save for one 'carbone' Opinel, which took a very quick patina from slicing some grapes. But this thread made me curious about the 1095 used in the Schrade knives. So yesterday, I conveniently noticed that I had my 8OT in my pocket, and at the same time was polishing off some tasty Chilean grapes from Costco, after dinner. I sliced a total of two grapes (red), using one half of each grape to rub the clip blade down, from the tip to the plunge line just in front of the ricasso. I started noticing some patina forming on the blade within maybe 20 minutes' time. I'll probably do this again this evening, and see if the patina enhances a bit. I'll see about posting a pic or two, if the patina looks 'worthy' of it. :)
 
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