Patina finish on blades

C

chrisa62401

Joined
Jan 28, 2012
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230
I've seen some blades that have a patina type finish on them. Stormcrow, for example has this on his knives. What is the technique used to obtain this type of finish?

Thanks


Chris
 
IMHO, the best patina is one naturally formed and not forced. Cutting acidic foods works great.

Forced patina's can be done...some with some really interesting patterns. Michael Rader has developed a method of making some really fun patina's.

Yellow mustard has been used by a lot of people to force a patina. Otherwise, anything slightly acidic will work....including acid. Lay some cut up tomatoes on the sides of the blade....lemons, limes, avocado's...etc.

Oh, just to make sure it's said....as a general rule, only carbon steel will take a patina.
 
So, on this knife, is the finish obtained while forging the steel?

scavenger%2B%25281%2529.JPG
 
Yes, that is a forged finish. It has hammer marks and marks from slag hammered in.

Is that one by Rick Marchand?
 
jawilder said:
I'd love to know your thoughts. It looks very interesting.
Click to expand...

I believe I recall Michael saying it was just yellow mustard applied to the sides of the blade with his fingers. However, again, I'm not real sure.

I could swear he had a thread about it...cannot recall which forum and cannot find it at the moment though.
 
jawilder said:
Yes, that is a forged finish. It has hammer marks and marks from slag hammered in.

Is that one by Rick Marchand?
Click to expand...

No, it's James Helm

http://www.helmforge.com/

I like the primitive look finish he has on his blades. Is there a way to get that on a stock removal blade. I'm getting ready to have my first knife heat treated and thought I'd ask before I send it out.
 
Here's a patina I just did last night. I've tried a number of different methods over the years and I still prefer the Cold Blue soaked in warm bleach the best. I've had best results with the Cold Blue paste that comes in the tube. Normally I will use a wool dauber to apply the bluing but this time I used a styrofoam peanut. I used the same dobbing method that Michael used. After I apply the bluing I let it dry out first and then into the warm bleach for about 5 minutes. Remove the blade and wipe off the bluing and then into the bleach again for another 5 minutes. You can repeat this step as often as you like. I stopped after the 3rd soak in the bleach. After the blade has been wiped clean and dried I went over it with Flitz.

IMG_4296.JPG


This blade was at one time was a leaf spring from a 1964 Mercury Comet. Different steels will patina differently.
 
Raymond Richard said:
Here's a patina I just did last night. I've tried a number of different methods over the years and I still prefer the Cold Blue soaked in warm bleach the best. I've had best results with the Cold Blue paste that comes in the tube. Normally I will use a wool dauber to apply the bluing but this time I used a styrofoam peanut. I used the same dobbing method that Michael used. After I apply the bluing I let it dry out first and then into the warm bleach for about 5 minutes. Remove the blade and wipe off the bluing and then into the bleach again for another 5 minutes. You can repeat this step as often as you like. I stopped after the 3rd soak in the bleach. After the blade has been wiped clean and dried I went over it with Flitz.

IMG_4296.JPG


This blade was at one time was a leaf spring from a 1964 Mercury Comet. Different steels will patina differently.
Click to expand...
So that was the final step after putting an edge on the blade? Oh, and it looks great, just what I was looking for.
 
I got a nice patina on 4" 01 blade by sticking the blade into a lemon for about 15 mins. I then checked it and put it back in for another 15. It came out really nice and when it starts to wear from use just stick it back into a lemon again.
 
I did it once with Potatoes to a fairly cheap Mora carbon steel knife as an experiment. I cut up sections of potato about a half inch thick, but flat faces so there would be no gaps over the length of the blade. Then I stabbed the knife through the sections of potato and left it sit for a while inside. Didn't take all that long and it came out with a pretty interesting pattern.
 
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