Knife patina

F

flphotog

Joined
Jul 10, 2014
Messages
319
I previously posted this in the Becker forum but thought there might be more interest here.
To make a long story short, I managed to get some deep scratches on the powder coating of my BK2 so I decided to strip off the coating and patina the blade. I left the coating on the tang and just did the blade.

My first attempt was using white vinegar, this gave it a fairly nice grey patina but it wasn't very smooth and I wasn't happy with it(picture below).
So I used a bench grinder with a buffing wheel to remove the patina and get back to bare metal.
My next and so far last attempt was with apple cider vinegar(picture below). I let the blade soak about 12 hours then dried it off and put a coating of mineral oil on it and let it sit a couple of days. After lightly wiping it down I had a nice black very smooth consistent black patina that I really like.

S48GvcEl.jpg


First attempt

Ano7Nogl.jpg


Second attempt
 
Man, nice job. That is a very smooth and consistent finish! I'll have to dabble with some apple cider vinegar on some projects :thumbup:

Any idea if that chemical reaction requires high carbon content like 1095? I'm messing with some hammer heads in low carbon steel and am wanting to try a few patina options. I tried straight muriatic acid and it made an kind of interesting brownish look.
 
MidnightSun said:
Man, nice job. That is a very smooth and consistent finish! I'll have to dabble with some apple cider vinegar on some projects :thumbup:

Any idea if that chemical reaction requires high carbon content like 1095? I'm messing with some hammer heads in low carbon steel and am wanting to try a few patina options. I tried straight muriatic acid and it made an kind of interesting brownish look.
Click to expand...

Can't say for sure MidnightSun, but my guess is that it would make at least some difference. The BK2 is 1095, I've never tried it on anything else. But then the worst that could happen is you waste a little vinegar. At least it ain't scotch :D
 
What are you going to do when you get deep scratches in your patina??
 
Nice work! I always thought you had to boil cider vinegar, which is downright nasty smelling, to get a deep black. Soaking is much easier and less smelly. I'll try it on my cattlemans knife tomorrow and let you all see.

Connor
 
ConBon said:
Nice work! I always thought you had to boil cider vinegar, which is downright nasty smelling, to get a deep black. Soaking is much easier and less smelly. I'll try it on my cattlemans knife tomorrow and let you all see.

Connor
Click to expand...

Looking forward to it.
 
Do you think this would work with D2? I have a new Made in Alaska that is D2 and am wondering if it would work to get a good patina coating on it's blade.

Omar
 
Just read this post after using hot cider vinegar to force a patina on a knife about 30 min ago. Wish I'd read this first, the house would smell a lot better. :barf:
 
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