Keep the Coating or Force Patina?

CrazzyAzzy said:
Thank you very much, friend. I'll probably get around to it within the next couple of days. I'll definitely be posting pics!
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:thumbup:
If you're still a little uneasy about what the stripper and/or vinegar will do to the steel, you might just test a small spot on the blade with each, and get a feel for how each of the acids will work. Maybe apply each with a Q-tip or something similar, and then watch what it does. Use a little bit of the baking soda as well, for testing the cleanup. Might avoid any big/unpleasant surprises, if otherwise diving head-first into the project. :)


David
 
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Too late. Dove in head first. Looking good so far. I'm literally typing this as I do the first vinegar bath. Ended up using Jascos paint and epoxy remover. It left this bluish sheen to the blade.

Finished the first bath, neutralized it with baking soda and then rinsed it off with water, however now there is some brownish red discoloration at the base of the blade where it meets the finger guard.

Discoloration has spread to most of the blade now after the second vinegar bath. I also realized that I have no idea what the end result is supposed to look like :/
 
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Alright here it is. I didn't have any mustard to make a fancy design so there's not really much to look at all. I did a vinegar bath 4 times and neutralized it each time with a nice coat of baking soda which was then rubbed off with a dry towel, then rinsed off with water, dried again, and then straight into the a 4 minute vinegar bath again. Hopefully I did this right! I finished it with a light coat of mineral oil as well.

http://imgur.com/a/m1ksA < There's all the pics of my knife.
 
Sweet! Looks good. But you should take pics of the knife with the same white carpet background. So we can see the difference better. :)
 
kwazyjuice said:
Sweet! Looks good. But you should take pics of the knife with the same white carpet background. So we can see the difference better. :)
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Yeah by the time I finished the sun had gone down so I couldn't get the same lighting. I totally forgot to sand the blade after stripping the coating to remove any residual coating. Do you think it's too late? Would I have to redo the whole patina? And what do I do about the discoloration? Is it red rust? I'm so worried!
 
You're making me laugh... haha! You're fine... I think you could just rub the red stuff off with some steel wool.

Well, I think it might be that it just had more oxidation towards the handle. How far up did the vinegar go on the blade?
 
I tried scrubbing it off with the green side of a dish sponge, no go. And the vinegar went all the way to where the coating starts again. I made sure that all of it was submerged in the vinegar. Doe sit make a difference if the vinegar wasn't mixed with water? It is distilled white vinegar but I didn't dilute it halfway with water.

*EDIT* Just made an impulsive decision to sand the whole blade down b/c I feared that I had trapped some of the Jascos under the patina since I remembered that I didn't wash the blade after I stripped it. Some of the Jascos actually ended up on my fingers too. So I just sanded it and reoiled it. Will probably try the patina process again tomorrow and hopefully it will be a lot easier now that I don't have to deal with the paint stripping part.
 
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So after I sanded off the patina with some 200 grit and then polished with some 000 steel wool I redid the patina and did three 10 minute soaks. Kwazy I read people soaking for up to 30 minutes at a time but that was with a 50/50 water vinegar mix instead of just straight vinegar. I figured since I didn't dilute my bath I wouldn't need to soak it as long. I really like the second patina job I did. It's a lot smoother looking thanks to the sanding and the patina is darker than the first job I did. I'm really liking all the effort I put in. I'll try to post some pictures of the second patina job tomorrow. Thanks for all your help guys!
 
I posted this a while back and copied it for you:

I soaked two paper towels in vinegar then lightly twisted them into a loose rope.
Wrapped them around the blade in a spiral fashion and let it sit for about 30 min.
Then unwrapped them and did a spiral in the opposite direction for another 30.
While that was sitting I stippled some vinegar around the handle and tang.
Gave it a good scrubbing with dish soap then rinse

EDIT: I found that after removing the paper towel and letting it sit in the open air for a few minutes before rinsing may help it etch a little deeper.

I like the random pattern this produces.

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That looks legit FTR! I saw someone do the paper towel method but they only left it on for 3-5 minutes and it transfered over the texture of the paper towel onto the blade. Do you oil the whole blade FTR or just the cutting edge?
 
I dry them off and use a little CLP on the entire blade before storage.
My 14 year old son has the BK2 now, I gave it to him a few weeks ago.
He does the same.
 
CrazzyAzzy said:
I did a 4 minute soak 4 times. Perhaps I need to soak it longer?
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i dunno. never done it myself, just curious.

i used to etch cross sections of weldments for macro-examintation. we used a 5% (or maybe 0.5 it's been a while) nitric acid in methanol. we'd leave it on for seconds. rinse with water, then rinse all the water off with methanol so it evaporates clean. then we'd coat it with lacquer. i don't know how well it would work for knives.

i'm thinking 16 minutes in vinegar's probably safer.
 
@FTR: what's CLP? And I was thinking the same thing about the air drying after soaking it. I probably should've done that too instead of just immediately neutralizing and scrubbing with baking soda.

@Jober: I was thinking about how effective just spray on clear coat would be. Decided against it though cuz it'd pretty much be the same if not weaker than the coating originally on it.
 
CLP just means Clean, lubricate, protect. There are several brands.
I'm working on a bottle of Strike Hold that I purchased at a gun show. Its nothing special but it does the job.
WD-40 or Silicone lube is better than nothing. Others have used Mineral oil as it is safe for food prep.

As for air drying, I'm not 100% sure but It seems like that is when some of the magic happens.
Try it out and let me know what you think.
 
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Ah I see. I use mineral oil for the finish. I won't be forcing another patina anytime soon haha. I'm out of vinegar. I had to fill up my Blender Bottle to the brim to soak my BK7 haha. Did it twice too...
 
i don't think clear coat would hold up to wear very well. might be fine for a display piece though.
 
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