Patina- harder than it looks

I've always just used a potato. I first wipe the blade with rubbing alcohol, insert, and leave it for a couple of days. If there is any bad spots I'll slightly polish them with 0000 steel wool. I'm sure there are more creative methods but this seems to do the job for me.
 
Why dont you sharpen it, then use it, and stop caring so much about the appearance of a $12 knife?
 
Tripton said:
Why dont you sharpen it, then use it, and stop caring so much about the appearance of a $12 knife?
Click to expand...
I know it's ridiculous, but I am very self-conscious of the appearance of my light-use knives. If I take the time to refinish it and doll it up, I'll be damned if I get caught with it looking like I don't care for it. Again, I know it is ridiculous, but I won't waste my time.
 
what sandpaper are you using, and what method? even a very fine grit should get rid of a patina rather easily. If I recall the secondary bevel is flat on a svord, so just set the sandpaper on a flat surface and go to town... i'd avoid any sort of powered device this early in the game, many a knife has been scarred up from wheels....

can you even get us a crappy cell phone pic to see how it originally turned out?
 
Has anyone ever tried a stronger acid, such as 24 mol HCL? I have always been tempted to strip my BK7, steal some HCL from the lab, and use a dropper to make a design. I'd think it'd require a very short amount of time to patina and would need a bunch of baths shortly there after, but I've always wondered the result.
 
This little jack's patina came from only a few minutes with some salsa on the blade.
IMG_0913-1.jpg


But you don't have to force it. This patina came mostly from oranges over the course of say 2 months. I also used it for other fruit and meat. You can see the difference between it and the pen which hasn't seen anything that would patina the blade.
IMG_1205.jpg
 
Patina helps prevent rust on the knife right? If so, how do you do it with vinegar? the paper towel method sounded easy enough but how long will it take?
 
I use mustard. I paint it lightly on my blade in a pattern and after 10 mins I wipe it off, formed is a nice patina.
 
This will sounds completely crazy but, it needs to be said. If you just use your knife, it will automatically get a patina. Seriously. ;)
 
I find that cutting up an orange works realy good. I cut up two with my cv trapper and it left an absolutely PERFECT grey tint to the blade. It isnt as uniform as when i first did it but it still is nice and dark, it just has a few dork spots on it but now from the orange, just from me being lazy.
 
what sandpaper are you using, and what method? even a very fine grit should get rid of a patina rather easily. If I recall the secondary bevel is flat on a svord, so just set the sandpaper on a flat surface and go to town... i'd avoid any sort of powered device this early in the game, many a knife has been scarred up from wheels....

can you even get us a crappy cell phone pic to see how it originally turned out?
 
RevDevil said:
This will sounds completely crazy but, it needs to be said. If you just use your knife, it will automatically get a patina. Seriously. ;)
Click to expand...

we live in the generation of instant gratification. can't really be surprised when someone doesn't want to wait a couple months to see how it turns out :p

that said, you can usually tell when it's natural or forced, and natural almost always looks better
 
On most of my knives I just let it develop naturally. I have forced a couple just for the heck of it and the vinegar soaked paper towel worked the best for me. Just make sure the knife is free of oils before starting and wrap the paper towel tightly around the blade. When it gets dark enough for you, clean it in soapy water followed by a thorough drying and light oiling.

This even worked well for me on D2.
dscf0245.jpg
 
colby. said:
Patina helps prevent rust on the knife right? If so, how do you do it with vinegar? the paper towel method sounded easy enough but how long will it take?
Click to expand...

With a heat source and even minimal air movement, maybe a few minutes.
 
Cold Kill said:
I know it's ridiculous
Click to expand...

No its not. Forcing a patina on a $12 knife is one of the least goofy things we do around here. Spending hundreds of bucks on sprint run knives like I have, just for the sake of hoarding them? Now thats goofy. :thumbup:
 
You guys are going to think I'm off my rocker, but I was eating roast beef (chuck roast if it matters) the other night with my freshly stripped Ontario RAT-3 (yeah, I'm like that), went to go wash it off, and noticed a serious patina had formed where I cut into the meat. Well, I scrubbed it off as best I could with a scrubby, dried it off, got a leftover piece of meat, warmed it up a bit, rubbed the whole blade with the meat for about five minutes, washed it off, and--voila--it had a very nice, even patina.
 
Last edited:
Nope, not off your rocker at all, I hope you ate the meat afterward though.:p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top