Have you forced a patina on 5160......

C

clockman

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Jan 14, 2009
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I bought a hunting knife in 5160 a few weeks ago. I've been using it to cut brush and weeds around the yard. I've been cleaning it and putting a

light coat of oil on it but I'm still getting spots (no rust Yet). I dont live in a humid climate or store the knife in the sheath.

I read somewhere here that using hot vinager will force a patina.

Has anyone forced a patina on 5160 and how/what did you use ?
 
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I forced a patina on a Kukri I own (made of 5160) using a bit of smeared mustard for 10 minutes (repeated a couple times if it doesn't all oxidize the first time), followed by a few hours soaking in vinegar. It turned out pretty well, and doesn't rust nearly as easily now.

You still have to wipe it down and oil it every now and then, but you shouldn't have to actively clean it every couple days to keep it from going brown like you probably do now.
 
Any kind of vinegar or any kind of mustard will leave a good patina on 5160. How long you leave it on is how dark the patina will be. Tabasco sauce will work too.

Turtle wax will help protect your blade from rust IMHO better than oil.

Could also do a reverse etch simply enough. A 9v battery, negative lead to the knife, positive to a nail and put the whole thing in some salt water. The knife becomes the anode and oxidizes pretty evenly to a nice dark gray.
 
The reverse etch thing. I just can't picture what you do. Do you just lay the knife on the neg. lead and put a nail under the pos. Is just salty water ok
Thx from us dummies :D




Circle-A-Blades said:
Any kind of vinegar or any kind of mustard will leave a good patina on 5160. How long you leave it on is how dark the patina will be. Tabasco sauce will work too.

Turtle wax will help protect your blade from rust IMHO better than oil.

Could also do a reverse etch simply enough. A 9v battery, negative lead to the knife, positive to a nail and put the whole thing in some salt water. The knife becomes the anode and oxidizes pretty evenly to a nice dark gray.
Click to expand...
 
PCB etchant will do a nice dark etch very quickly too. Not sure if that's quite what you're looking for.
 
hstdist said:
The reverse etch thing. I just can't picture what you do. Do you just lay the knife on the neg. lead and put a nail under the pos. Is just salty water ok
Thx from us dummies :D
Click to expand...

2 wires with gator clips and a jar full of salt water. + clip goes to the nail, -clip goes to the knife. Put the knife and the nail in the jar of salt water, leave the battery out of the salt water....you will be etching the nail, not the knife. And ya, just salty water as the electrolyte....7%, any more salt doesn't really change anything.

I came across this by accident a while back and use it every now and then. I was following this guys directions but accidentally did it backwards. http://www.navaching.com/forge/etching.html
 
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