Patina color variation from food....

M

MacTech

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Jan 7, 2006
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I have a few Carbon Steel pocketknives, a Case Peanut chestnut CV, a Case Soddie Jr in Yeller CV, a Case Canoe in Amber bone CV, and a couple Opinels, ranging from the #6 to the mighty #12, i've noticed an interesting commonality between them, in that different high-acid foods create different patina colorations....

on my Opinels it's generally gray with faint hints of bluish tint, no matter the food, but my CV Cases, they take on rainbow hues....

so, using my Case CV blades (which have been consistent across the board) i've made the following discovery;

Gala apples; an orangy-blue, medium build
Honeycrisp apples; orange, slow build
Red Delicious apples; bluish-purple, and the patina builds and darkens very rapidly, i got a nice, almost gunmetal blue-purple from just one small apple on my Peanut CV...
Cara Cara oranges; reddish orange, very slow patina growth
Tomatoes; grayish orange, slow growth

i find it utterly fascinating how different apples can generate such disparate results....
what colors have you seen form?
 
Bananas put a nice black streak in my GECs. Also bell peppers but a nice, light grey on as well.
 
MacTech said:
I have a few Carbon Steel pocketknives, a Case Peanut chestnut CV, a Case Soddie Jr in Yeller CV, a Case Canoe in Amber bone CV, and a couple Opinels, ranging from the #6 to the mighty #12, i've noticed an interesting commonality between them, in that different high-acid foods create different patina colorations....

on my Opinels it's generally gray with faint hints of bluish tint, no matter the food, but my CV Cases, they take on rainbow hues....

so, using my Case CV blades (which have been consistent across the board) i've made the following discovery;

Gala apples; an orangy-blue, medium build
Honeycrisp apples; orange, slow build
Red Delicious apples; bluish-purple, and the patina builds and darkens very rapidly, i got a nice, almost gunmetal blue-purple from just one small apple on my Peanut CV...
Cara Cara oranges; reddish orange, very slow patina growth
Tomatoes; grayish orange, slow growth

i find it utterly fascinating how different apples can generate such disparate results....
what colors have you seen form?
Click to expand...

What are we talking about, knife steels or coffee roasts?:D
 
I tend to use my knives for food prep as well. I haven't done a study to determine which foods add which type of patina though. Clever.

My personal experience is that each blade is different - even when comparing two or three GECs with 1095 - they may have different types of patina forming, even with the same type of food or other material I'm cutting. I haven't done anything quite as thought out as this yet. That would take way too much effort for me, I'm thinking.
 
I heated up a potato in the microwave for 1 minute and stuck one of my gec's in it for about an hr and the blade came out just about black. Looked like it had been blued. Pretty cool
 
Strawberries create a nice red/blue/purple iridescent patina on new CV steel blades. Banana (peels only) creates an instant black patina that will mostly wipe off. Heated vinegar gives a uniform dark gray that will partially wipe off.

I haven't paid much attention to the different colors from different types of apples, but I'd say that the more tart the apple tastes, the more quickly it will generate a patina.
 
I use certain blades for food-prep or for use as steak/chicken/Porkchop dining knives. The others I don't use for much food applications very often unless that's just what I've got at the time.

I mostly slice apples for snacks, so not many fruits I can compare to really. For meat or fruit they seem to just take on a thin a bluish hue to them. The type of patina that builds from perspiration in the pocket or just from exposure to handling in general (mainly this forms along the spine of the blade and on the back-spring) is a dark deep charcoal gray. My 55 exibits this example the best as it's got the deep-dark gray from nearly-every-day-without-fail carry in my RF pocket.

 
MacTech said:
I have a few Carbon Steel pocketknives, a Case Peanut chestnut CV, a Case Soddie Jr in Yeller CV, a Case Canoe in Amber bone CV, and a couple Opinels, ranging from the #6 to the mighty #12, i've noticed an interesting commonality between them, in that different high-acid foods create different patina colorations....

on my Opinels it's generally gray with faint hints of bluish tint, no matter the food, but my CV Cases, they take on rainbow hues....

so, using my Case CV blades (which have been consistent across the board) i've made the following discovery;

Gala apples; an orangy-blue, medium build
Honeycrisp apples; orange, slow build
Red Delicious apples; bluish-purple, and the patina builds and darkens very rapidly, i got a nice, almost gunmetal blue-purple from just one small apple on my Peanut CV...
Cara Cara oranges; reddish orange, very slow patina growth
Tomatoes; grayish orange, slow growth

i find it utterly fascinating how different apples can generate such disparate results....
what colors have you seen form?
Click to expand...

MacTech: A couple of years late but - What an awesome thread for patinas and the different color variation possibilities with different foods. I read somewhere that freshly cooked red meat also brings out about the same colors as the red delicious apple so, I tried a red delicious apple and a rib-eye steak on an old, like-new, Schrade USA 152 Sharpfinger and got an array of colors. It's sort of rainbow-like in the right lighting but looks blotchy dark in other angles and in a semi dark room. I'm wondering how I could get these same colors but more uniformed throughout a 1095 carbon steel blade, and if the blade surface texture, whether shiny new or smooth but slightly used makes any difference in that outcome? I've seen some photos when I googled "patina color with ketchup on carbon steel" but only photos and no patina recipes so, I'm hesitant to try the ketchup on a Schrade USA 15OT. I'm also wanting to do this to avoid pitting. Thanks, buddy!
 
Mactech i love your descriptions.:thumbup:
Are you by any chance a wine or boutique beer enthusiast?
I'm strangely reminded of a an old firey I used to work with -lets call him Digger... because that's what he was called.
An old school surfer dude and the worlds most tired man.He was found asleep in the shower at the start of the shift once.
Human tiredness can be measured in a scale which we can directly attribute to Digger.
The Malcolm scale.
1 Malcolm is equal to 10 nursing home seniors dozing in their chairs.
We stopped for a coffee one day at a trendy barista cafe place. They had all the hipster styles and dozens of single source ,sustainable ,organic,hassle free, fair trade , regurgitated by jungle cats, ground by peasant children types of coffee imaginable.
Digger stands there perusing the board with a pained look as if searching for that obscure Nigerian wholemeal halal coffee that no one has ever heard of.
"yah hoh kn Ah hulp yoy?" says the hipster behind the machine.
"Can I gettay yerrrrrrr...." his eyes scan the board back and forth " ay errrrrrrr....coffee?"
"yah mate whut blund wudjyoy like?"
"ahhh god enny nescafe?"

Anyhow
I'm working on a various patina with the Texas 98 Kookaburra campknife-actually taking it camping next week so I'll get some before and afters.
cheers.
 
It'll be interesting to see a Kookaburra patina!:D
I've googled kookaburra calls - they sure sound amazing!:eek:
 
I cut a pineapple with a 1095cv knife and by the time I was done it was getting Very dark gray.
 
The onion family, notably shallots give a wonderful bluish violet hue.

I've found Pears give a very good even dark patina, more than apples. Just wash that blade if you've been at the onions and garlic first.:barf::D

Most days I cut a couple of oranges for breakfast juice, a uniform grey with some red. Limes give black splotchy zebra stripes.

But as has been noted, the steels vary. CASE cv colours evenly as does Böker's German carbon. GEC is more spotty and resistant.:confused:
 
I like to cut my pizzas with my knives and most of the pizzas put some crazy patina, and very dark ones quickly!
 
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