Mustard and vinegar patina

[Morrow]

I was bored this weekend and started goofing around with one of my favorite kitchen knives. This knife was made by Chris Moss (knifemaker87 here on BF). The knife is O1 with stainless bolsters and a black micarta handle. I cleaned the blade in warm soapy water, dried it and then wiped it down with alcohol. I put some mustard in a bowl and using my finger, pressed the mustard on to the blade in a somewhat random pattern. I didn't cover the whole blade. After it dried for about 2 hours I sprayed the blade down with vinegar and let it sit for another hour. I washed it again in warm soapy water and gave it a good rubbing with 0000 steel wool. I repeated this same process about 5 times over the course of two days. This is the result. I'm happy with it.

 

[Knifemaker87]

wow!
that is frikin awesome! i really like the look of that.
*grins* may have to try that out myself!
good on ya!
thanks
~Chris

 

[Morrow]

The pictures do it no justice.....the pattern has a lot more depth to it than you can see.

 

[richard j]

that looks cool. i might have to try that. i have let a blade soak in vinegar but never thought about putting mustard on in a random pattern like that first.:thumbup: that was one good idea.

 

[Morrow]

that looks cool. i might have to try that. i have let a blade soak in vinegar but never thought about putting mustard on in a random pattern like that first.:thumbup: that was one good idea.

Thanks...but I can't take credit for the idea. I read it somewhere.
The vinegar when sprayed on the dried mustard seems to create a more random pattern and etch a little deeper. You can spray water on as well but I like vinegar because it will patina the areas not covered by the mustard.

 

[cutlerylover]

Thanks...but I can't take credit for the idea. I read it somewhere.

Hmmm, I think I read an article about using mustard for a patina in blade recently, but dont recall anythgin about viniger...I was gonna try it but just didnt get around to it and forgot all about it...lol, but yours came out very nice looking!

 

[Morrow]

Hmmm, I think I read an article about using mustard for a patina in blade recently, but dont recall anythgin about viniger...I was gonna try it but just didnt get around to it and forgot all about it...lol, but yours came out very nice looking!

The was an article in Blade a few months ago about this. He recommended using water after the first mustard application is dried. I spray with vinegar after each mustard application but there are a lot of similarities. I may just try his method to see how it turns out. I have a lot of Ontario Spec Plus knives that are coated 1095. I strip the coating off and usually patina them using different methods.