patinating steel

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Wolf_1989

Joined
Mar 30, 2007
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I'm having trouble patinating the langets on a Cold Steel warhammer.


A few days ago I bought one and stripped the black paint off the langets (completely) and head (partially) using a vibrating palm sander and set about patinating it.

I found a recipe online using vinegar, H2O2, and salt which did a good job turning the langets nice and brown, or so I thought. Initially the entire surface turned a nice brown after a few repeated applications. I left it alone for a few days to give it a good chance to patinate well.

But then when I wiped it down with a clean dry cloth, about 1/3 of it just wiped off. :confused:

I cleaned up the unaffected areas using some sandpaper to re-expose some virgin steel to my patination efforts but so far nothing is working.

I even tried experimenting with bleach and so far that's looking like a bunch of fail.

I've tried various degrees of mixture using the ingredients of salt, H2O2, vinegar, and bleach, both cold and hot, and nothing is working.

I've used table salt, rock salt, straight bleach, diluted, anything I could think of.

So far the result is one fail after another.

Is it possible for a piece of steel to be partially stainless?

:confused:
 
I have used boiling white vinegar on a cold steel viking hawk. I left the head in the boiling vinegar for 1 hour. It turned a nice grey, with the heat treat line visible. The patina cannot be wiped off, but will scratch.
 
Not sure what steel is used on your War hammer , but I blued my CS Viking axes and polished with steel wool until the 'blue' turned into a nice dark greyish color.

Might give it a go.
 
The head isn't the problem. It patinated fine and none of it is wiping off.

The langets are puzzling. Most of the surface is that perfect brown patina I was going for. The other parts are... just a little greyed. I've tried and tried to brown them but nothing is taking.
 
Wolf_1989 said:
The head isn't the problem. It patinated fine and none of it is wiping off.

The langets are puzzling. Most of the surface is that perfect brown patina I was going for. The other parts are... just a little greyed. I've tried and tried to brown them but nothing is taking.
Click to expand...

Maybe they are made from a different grade of steel.
 
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