Knife patina help

S

setlab

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Apr 11, 2012
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I've been looking at some knives over at http://www.jericohblades.com/#!details/vstc1=finish-options He has some awsome patinas on his blades. Does anyone know how to get results like this?

VigilantMkIX-Patina-2.jpg


or

100_34411.jpg
 
I'm not sure how he does it, but you can get very similar results using yellow mustard.

- Chris
 
I'd start with vinegar or another acid, vinegar is slow and fairly safe.


I see two line sizes there, maybe a cotton string and a q tip soaked and run across the blade.
Maybe not string, but just strands pulled from the swap into a thin strand.

Try that, or whatever strikes you as fun and interesting.
You can always scrub it off with either a scotchbrite pad, or fine abrasive paper.
 
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I never would have guested useing a string. I'll try that out tomorrow on some bar stock. What do you think causes that gold hue to some of the patinas?
 
If you use ferric chloride to dissolve copper, then dip steel into it, the copper will plate onto the steel.

I suppose you could brush some on and get patterns like that too.
 
I like the string idea! I have butcher's twine. Maybe I'll soaks it with lemon juice or vinegar and wrap it on a blade. thanks for the idea.

Ric
 
After trying the string and vineger idea I want to try it out with something really thin, like horse hair or simmilar. My results with vinegar didn't get me a crisp really fine dark line like those bloades though.

While reading up on patinas I came across a couple sites that cater to sculpting http://www.sculpt.com/catalog_98/patina/rypatinas.htm they have a handful of different color patinas that can be applied to steel, has anyone ever used anything like that before?
 
Mix your acid with flour and you can paint your lines on. You'll have to play with the chemistry a little. I have a customer that ages his blades this way. He uses straight fc out of the bottle. It almost looks like Damascus if you mess with it enough
 
I had a conversation with a maker at the Cambridge show, where we discussed; poor man's damascus.
It is a process where you suspend the hardened blade in a cheap, ss pot with a 50/50 solution of chlorine bleach and water. You boil the solution for twenty minutes before submerging the blade. The angle that you suspend the blade affects the way the finish looks on the steel. Its a very unique look.
He was an accomplished maker and had two knives with him that where processed in this manner. I had never seen this done before and would like to give it a try.

Fred
 
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I do a very similar tiger stripe pattern on some of my knives. I use plochmans mustard. I wipe a thin layer of mustard all over the blade. I then take a slightly damp q-tip and swipe lines all down the blade. You can make swirls, lines, anything you like. Let the knife sit overnight. The mustard will be hard and crusty. Rinse that off in some water and you will have some nice stripes/patterns. You can keep it that way, or submerge the blade in some apple cider vinegar for a few hours to make things a bit grey.

You can also darken the blade first in some ferric chloride, and spread the mustard on after its good and grey. Do the same swipes with the qtip. The mustard will make stripes on the ferric etched blade
 
GrizzlyBear said:
Fred, do you have pictures of blades done with this process?
Click to expand...

I have no pics. The maker who told me how the bleach boil was done had two knives with him to show. What I posted above is a re-post from the one I did after that show in Cambridge where I learned this. I do know the stainless steel pot effects the process as well as the diluted bleach. Now that I have seen this thread, I may have to get out my ss bucket and bleach and give it a go.
 
Sounds like a really neat trick. I would imagine that the SS pot is so the pot doesn't corrode away over time. Next time I'm at the store I'll pick some plochmans mustard up too and see what it liiks like.
 
setlab said:
Sounds like a really neat trick. I would imagine that the SS pot is so the pot doesn't corrode away over time. Next time I'm at the store I'll pick some plochmans mustard up too and see what it liiks like.
Click to expand...

The guy said the ss pot reacted to the bleach and contributed to the finish. I don't know the chemistry but he was clear about that. What ever, cheap ss pots are pretty cheap. :D
 
I will tell you this... how you prepare the knife prior to patinaing matters more than what type of acid or chemical you use. A knife finished to a finer grit will not patina as dramatically as one finished at a lower grit. All three of my patinas require the knife be finished to a different fineness level. To do the patina in the pics here, I use a chemical for more contrast, but you can get there with using the yellow stuff in your fridge.
 
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