patina or rust

RescueRiley

RescueRiley

Joined
Mar 22, 2006
Messages
5,944
noticed some straeks starting to develop on my barkie porbably a patina...but don't want it to pit any way to tell the difference??? I know a patina is a form of oxidation but I just want to maintain the longevity of the knife.
 
If it's dark gray in color it's most likely a patina starting. Rust usually starts as little freckles.
 
After you use it always wipe it clean and dry. When not in use put a light coating of oil.
 
I get all sorts of patina from natural wood sap and plant juices on my machetes and carbon knives down here. The color varies with what does the damage and the look is definately "Hard Use".

I try to jumpstart the process by using vinegar on blades that are going to develop a patina. The vinegar will give a very uniform appearance, it seems to hold a light coat of oil well and it can be redone easily.

Here are before and after shots of a hatchet head I did a few weeks ago. This hatchet was a freebie I found on a dayhike. It had been stuck in a tree for who knows how long and was very rusted, even pitted in places, no real patina, just good old red rust. I took the thing down to about 600 grit and let it soak for a few hours in apple cider vinegar.

Here is the blade "In the White".

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The head had two different hardnesses of steel in it and it took the patina differently. I think its a pretty cool look actually.

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Notice the inside of the nail notch. I didn't remove the rust in there when I sanded it down. The vinegar removed it quite well all on its own. That is an added bonus to using vinegar, it gets the rust out of the pits. It even cleaned out the inside. All I need now it to make a leather cover.

Different vinegars will work better or worse and it can be hard to know in advance what it will look like but I find a carbon steel blade with a patina looks cool and works well to protect the blade. Mac
 
RescueRiley said:
anyway to encourag patina and discourage rust?
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Use it in the kitchen. Cut lots of fruit, meat, veggies and let the knife sit a while. Wash it off and dry it good, then repeat. I like using my new knives in the kitchen anyway, and the patina develops faster that way.

pict, I noticed that too. You can tell in my NWA knife below, the hardened edge got a darker patina. Pretty cool.
 
I'm afraid to tell ya it's rust bro, so you'd better send it to me ASAP and get yourself a shiney new one !!!!:D
 
I've read on the other forum that if you want a good patina, do what tknife said only make some salsa. Lots of different acids in one tasty meal.:D
 
runningboar said:
Mustard
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Yeah you can do some cool patterns with mustard. I did the blade on my Gossman PSK and it turned out good. One thing I noticed though is that when I made fajitas, I got some nice colors that mustard didn't give me. Can't tell but I think it was from the chicken.
 
RescueRiley said:
anyway to encourage patina and discourage rust?
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I like mustard patinas. I did one on a ranger RD5.

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I also like ferric chloride. You can buy it at Radio Shack labeled as "PCB etchant".

If you want a nice even patina FeCl is the way to go. Best way to do it is clean the blade, soak in a 5:1 water to FeCl ratio until you get the color you want. Usually a minute or less. Rinse with water and clean with 000 steel wool. Repeat as desired. Be sure to oil after etching and cleaning.

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These are some trade knives I handled and etched with FeCl. They were really shiny and rough, had lots of black pits on them. Cleaned up and etched they look pretty good.
 
pict said:
I get all sorts of patina from natural wood sap and plant juices on my machetes and carbon knives down here. The color varies with what does the damage and the look is definately "Hard Use".

I try to jumpstart the process by using vinegar on blades that are going to develop a patina. The vinegar will give a very uniform appearance, it seems to hold a light coat of oil well and it can be redone easily.

Here are before and after shots of a hatchet head I did a few weeks ago. This hatchet was a freebie I found on a dayhike. It had been stuck in a tree for who knows how long and was very rusted, even pitted in places, no real patina, just good old red rust. I took the thing down to about 600 grit and let it soak for a few hours in apple cider vinegar.
.............................

Mac
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I recently acquired a simmilar axe (found it in the woods with significant rust on it), what method do you guys suggest for removing the rust?

Thank you!
 
runningboar said:
Soak in oil over night then use a wire wheel on a drill and it will clean up spic and span. Chris
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Sounds good, what kind of oil would you use? And is there a specific type of wire wheel that I should use? (I don't currently have one of those)
 
Serrinon said:
Sounds good, what kind of oil would you use? And is there a specific type of wire wheel that I should use? (I don't currently have one of those)
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Pict, thats an interesting hatchet. Wonder if normal axes would show any hardened zones.

I use brass wire wheels.
 
Brass wire wheel sounds good. I don't have one so I just used sandpaper and elbow grease. As to other hatchets I don't know as I've never done any others. I could tell while cleaning up the head in places with a file that I had two very different hardnesses of steel. That's one way to check.

Before you do any type of patina you have to thoroughly degrease and don't get any finger prints on the steel or they show right up. I used alcohol on mine. Mac
 
Some oils penetreate rust scale better than others. I've had best results with a really thin oil like PB Blaster that you can get at hardware and auto parts stores. Kerosene works too.
 
Now I'm even more excited to receive and start using my Nessie. I think it will look pretty sweet with a nice patina on it.
 
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