Increasing Color Contrast On Stainless Damascus

[benjamin831]

Hi,

I recently purchased a new Japanese kitchen knife. Its incredibly beautiful but I was wondering if I can safely increase the color contrast on the damascus cladding. The damascus is a layered with soft and hard stainless steel. The core is also stainless, making it an all stainless knife. I'm simply looking to create more contrast rather than any topographical changes as the surface needs to stay smooth otherwise it'll create drag when slicing food.

I've tried soaking it in room temperature white vinegar and lemon juice for 15 mins but I don't think it made any impact at all.

Any tips?

 

[Craig James]

Hi personally I love the look you have. To draw out the contrast you effectively need a stronger acid. Something like ferric chloride. You could also try heating your vinegar solution and/or leaving it for longer.

I wouldn’t bother though

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Most stainless clad knives will have cladding that's even more stainless than the cutlery-grade (hardenable) stainless at the core. The cladding, if it serves any useful purpose at all, is often there to add toughness (resistance to breakage) to the blade, and likely will have very low carbon content. The carbon content in steel is a big factor in determining how easily it will stain or patina (higher carbon stains more easily). And large amounts of chromium or nickel in the stainless cladding will make it even harder to stain. If anything is able to darken or color it at all, it would have to be something pretty severely aggressive, which would be capable of more deeply etching the steel. The depth of the etching is what creates the illusion of darkening on stainless steel, for the most part, creating shadows in the texture of the etched surface.

If it were mine, I'd just leave it be.