Patina on carbon steel

raindog101

raindog101

Joined
Jan 22, 2007
Messages
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I'm thinking of trying to put a nice patina on my Master Hunter (carbon V), and wonder what people recommend. I've heard about mustard, and Coca-Cola, and I noticed lime juice stained my blade pretty quick. Anyone have any input?
 
Cut up a fruit salad with it! Let the juices sit on the blade a while and get sticky after you are done. Wash the blade. Dry it. Repeat a couple times.

Patina and delicious fruit salads. No waste.
 
I just did this to a new Boker slipjoint by putting it in a dish of vinegar for about five minutes. It looks like an antique now - a very nice effect.
 
a dish or cup, whatever of vinegar works great, or like someone else mentioned, just use it to eat a couple of apples. After two or three fruits you should start noticing a nice natural patina. I've been using a knife I made to eat peaches and necturines and it's been starting to get a nice patina.
 
I've already done a little of the fruit patina, unintentionally. Now my goal is to get the blade more evened out. It looks kinda funky right now, I cut some grapes with it, and a few stuck to the blade, so now I have some circular patinas on the end of the blade, with some drip lines. It looks a bit strange, so I think the rest of the blade needs to be done. I like the vinegar thing, I may try that. Any particular type, or will the typical white vinegar work the best?
 
OK, fellows, now I'll ask the dumb question of the day: WHAT KIND of vinegar is best? Besides the more common white vinegar and apple cider vinegar, there is wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar and probably some others that I'm not acquainted with. Since I really like vinegars of all kinds on and in my foods, I was just wondering if plain old cheap white vinegar is what everybody is using to produce that nice patina on their carbon steel blades. Thanks in advance.
 
I think a nice balsamic would work well. But I too would like confirmation of the best vinegar type.
 
Any vinager will work, I'm not sure if one is better than the other, I've only used white vinager 'cause that's all I had, and it worked perfectly. I really don't think it matters too much as they will all do the same thing; the only difference I could think of is that maybe one will do it faster than another? maybe I'm not the one to answer this question, all's I know is that white vinager works.
 
White vinegar it is. I'll try it later tonight, and post before and after pics to this thread. Thanks for the input.
 
Use whatever you have in the kitchen, here is a Fox River, 20 minutes in a blend of white/cider/water bath. No particular reason for the blend other than I ran out of cider vinegar and had to use the white. Have fun.
 
Damn, I like the look of that Fox River (except for the yellow handle; yellow is not really my color). But I just found out I have NO VINEGAR! So unless I get off my lazy butt and go get some, this project will have to wait until this weekend.
 
Depending on how patient you are you can also heat the vinegar and it turns the blade even quicker. Not too hot, but a minute or so in the microwave, pull out the dish and drop your knife in blade open. Make sure you degrease the knife well or it will give you that uneven look. You also need to work the blade a bit. If you don't and there is a tight fit where your blade is hinged you will have silver spots when you close the knife. Good luck and post some pics of the final product.
 
Luckily I wont have to worry about the hinge. I'm going to do a Cold Steel Master Hunter in Carbon V. Hopefully the blade will look something like IUKE12's
Fox River.
 
The proper patina is dependent on what the knife will be used for. If you are going to cut meat, use a full bodied red wine vinegar. If you are going to filet fish, use a good white wine vinegar. Distilled white vinegar is okay for salads based on iceberg lettuce, but if you are going to slice up radicchio or fennel bulbs for your salad, you must use an imported aged balsamic.
 
So much balsamic vinegar is kind of faked. Red wine vinegar with a bit of caramel added. Especially the cheap stuff. Lately I've started to like raspberry vinegar and other mildly flavored wine vinegars.
 
What if I'm going to cut wood? Apple cider vinegar? This'll be a bushcraft knife, not a salad fixer!
 
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