How do you prevent patina?

Easyrider

Easyrider

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Jan 31, 2000
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The title pretty much says it all. How can I prevent patina from forming on my GEC 1095 blade steel?
 
If you use it, you're going to get some degree of a patina on the blade. It would be almost impossible not to especially if you used it to cut food (i.e., meat, veggies, etc.). Even if you wiped the knife down after each use with an oily rag, some patina would form on the blades. Just carrying a knife with 1095 in your pocket without using it at all would eventually, in most circumstances, cause the blade to gray to some extent. Polishing with a Flitz cloth would likely be the best way to prevent patina but even then there are no guarantees.
 
Agree with Ed...which leads to the next question: is your GEC also produced in 440C? cause in my experience they do a great job on their stainless :)

Fausto
:cool:
 
Nearly impossible, but you can control the patina by regularly wiping the blade with Brasso, I don't know why you would want to prevent your GEC from maturing though, it's all in the beauty of a traditional. I only use it on my work knives
 
You can buy abrasive erasers for knives and that will take the oxidation off. It gets old doing that after awhile. I agree with Kershaws, let it patina. :thumbup:
 
I agree with what everyone else has said.

You can minimize it with regular cleaning or polishing and you can remove it with abrasives, but the only way to avoid it is to buy stainless.
 
Thank you everyone. I guess I need to either just live with the patina, I prefer shiny blades, or look for a knife with a stainless steel blade.
 
From the manufacturer: http://www.greateasterncutlery.com/caring-for-carbon/

Here are some tips I use:

- Don't use the carbon steel knife for food prep. I keep a dedicated SS knife for that purpose in my bag.
- Use a decent lubricant/protectant. Just a little, but regularly. I happen to like WD-40 Silicone Spray. Eezox, Tuf-glide, or any type of oil you feel like. I like the Wd-40 Silicone because it doesn't leave an oily residue, same with the Eezox.
- Get a good metal polish*. Simichrome, Wenol, Flitz, or a polishing cloth like Sunshine cloth. You can nip any early patina in the bud.
- Keep the knife clean and dry.
- (optional - more for display or storage) Wax the blade with a product like Renaissance Wax.



*If you want to maintain your surface blade etch (if it has one), don't use metal polish on the area with the blade etch. Just use it on a soft cloth or paper towel, not a power tool. Be careful of blade etches with Ren Wax as well, though a light application and light polishing shouldn't affect most.
 
I started off trying to keep my Green River knives from forming a patina but I use mine to clean game so I realized quickly it was futile. I decided to embrace it and I actually ended up forcing it just to get it over with. Like pulling off a bandaid!
 
Maintaining a HIGH polish (as in mirror) on the blade slows down a patina quite a bit. I have an Opinel 'carbone' blade with a near-mirror, and it's pretty much stayed that way. As mentioned, using it for much of anything will eventually induce some oxidation (patina) on the blade, but it doesn't hurt anything. If you still don't want to see it, just polish it off with some Flitz, Simichrome or similar polish made for steels.

As with others here, I haven't worried about patina at all. It's a natural process for steel, and will even help (a little bit) to slow down the real threat, which is rusting.


David
 
In all honesty, though I am not a big fan of the look of most patinas, I have come to a middle ground which I call a "natural resisted patina."

I use the knife how I want for whatever tasks are at hand without regard for patina formation. I keep it relatively clean and oiled when I think about it. A patina will form (slowly or quickly, depending on what I use it for).

Every so often I will polish the blades with Simichrome on a soft cloth by hand, which removes most of it but leaves some color change behind, along with a glossy surface. Over multiple iterations of this the knife still develops its own character and color, it's just not as pronounced as the dark splotchy gray you see in some pics. I like the look of it, which says to me "used but well maintained."
 
Might help prevent it but I've never tried it, I heard of people using chapstick on the blade to help protect it. So in theory it should help prevent it from forming a patina.
 
You cannot stop time, patina will eventually occur to those blades no matter what, it just depends on the amount and type of usage they encounter. My sweat will cause pepper spots/patina on 1095 steel in very short order.

IMG_67021800x1151_zps9c049b71.jpg


I have learned to just accept the fact, and live with it, and to live with my beloved GEC 1095 bladed knives... much more enjoyable for me to use them and not fret, and see how they wind up looking on down the road a piece...
 
sitflyer said:
You cannot stop time, patina will eventually occur to those blades no matter what, it just depends on the amount and type of usage they encounter. My sweat will cause pepper spots/patina on 1095 steel in very short order.

IMG_67021800x1151_zps9c049b71.jpg


I have learned to just accept the fact, and live with it, and to live with my beloved GEC 1095 bladed knives... much more enjoyable for me to use them and not fret, and see how they wind up looking on down the road a piece...
Click to expand...

Don't worry, that'll buff right out. ;)
 
sitflyer said:
You cannot stop time, patina will eventually occur to those blades no matter what, it just depends on the amount and type of usage they encounter. My sweat will cause pepper spots/patina on 1095 steel in very short order.

IMG_67021800x1151_zps9c049b71.jpg


I have learned to just accept the fact, and live with it, and to live with my beloved GEC 1095 bladed knives... much more enjoyable for me to use them and not fret, and see how they wind up looking on down the road a piece...
Click to expand...

Man that knife is dirty just look at that blade. I think you need to clean it and take better care of your blades ;).
 
Good thread. I'm another who prefers a nice shiny blade, but then I tend to over-baby my knives. I obsessively wipe them down after every use. Even fingerprints get cleaned up immediately. I also carry both carbon and stainless and only use stainless on food (which really limits the useability of whatever carbon blade I'm carrying).

Maybe I need to learn to stop worrying and love the bomb.
 
Folks typically buy carbon steel blades for it's properties and not it's appearance. If looks is all you're after then you qualify to join to 99.99% of knife users that get suckered into stainless.
I must be the exact opposite of you in that all of my knives (except for serrated edge bread and steak knives) are carbon steel and when I spy a patina-ed kitchen knife at a friend or stranger's house I immediately disregard wanting to use any of the 'shiny' ones. Every now and again one of my houseguests or daughters will slice a tomato or onion (etc) and forget to wipe the blade. Overnight this yields a pretty obvious stain. On those occasions I pull out a little square of 1000 grit automotive sandpaper and quickly shine things up to be just like new again.
Ever wonder why top quality files and rasps are made of high carbon steel? The manufacturers must know something about sharpness and edge retention that we don't, or else they'd have been marketing stainless versions a very long time ago.
Overlook the patina on your knife and instead focus on how exquisitely sharp you can maintain the blade.
 
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