Ok folks. Hi to all.
This is my first attempt at personalising a knife.
It is a knife for my grilfriend to bring at work and cut fruit, meat and any meal that requires a knife as she brings her own.
I would like to do something special and I already decided on buying an Opinel and personalising it for her.
Oplinels are great, don't look menacing(something that was a must) and perform even with a very low pricetag.
I firstlty bought an Inox one thinking on practicality, but wanted to do a custom pattern on the blade, and I don¡t know how to, then I searched and found the mustard patina method.
I then bought a carbon steel Opinel(both are nº8, 8,5 cm blade).
This one let me try my first patina work.
I began by covering the top halfe of the blade with mustard for 30 minutes then rinsing. I did this in the wave pattern you see. I wanted it to be organic, left a lot to chance.
Then I did another layer some distance back from the firts for 20 min, and another for 10 min.
After the top half was stained, I made a mix of lemon and white vinegar and dipped the whole blade. That made the unpatinated but(lower half of the blade) to become dark and make a nice contrast.
Then I dabbed with mustard by finger the top half of the blade trying not to reach the edge of the first patina wave, giving a nice contrast between chaotic and full, wave and contrast, and cleanlines and simple grey.
I like it, but I made some mistakes as you might notice. Tha base of the blade rusted and had to sand it, will dip it in vinegar again, to blacken it. Any idea on how to finish this?
Another mod I'm doing is sanding-reprofiling all the handle. First I did a moded ergo mod and I'm also planning on a lanyard but maybe also some other material inserts.
Any Idea?
The other thing I don't know is how could I draw with ink on the wood. DO I use a marker? or a paintbrush and ink? Will the ink stain and run?
here are some pics!
This is my first attempt at personalising a knife.
It is a knife for my grilfriend to bring at work and cut fruit, meat and any meal that requires a knife as she brings her own.
I would like to do something special and I already decided on buying an Opinel and personalising it for her.
Oplinels are great, don't look menacing(something that was a must) and perform even with a very low pricetag.
I firstlty bought an Inox one thinking on practicality, but wanted to do a custom pattern on the blade, and I don¡t know how to, then I searched and found the mustard patina method.
I then bought a carbon steel Opinel(both are nº8, 8,5 cm blade).
This one let me try my first patina work.
I began by covering the top halfe of the blade with mustard for 30 minutes then rinsing. I did this in the wave pattern you see. I wanted it to be organic, left a lot to chance.
Then I did another layer some distance back from the firts for 20 min, and another for 10 min.
After the top half was stained, I made a mix of lemon and white vinegar and dipped the whole blade. That made the unpatinated but(lower half of the blade) to become dark and make a nice contrast.
Then I dabbed with mustard by finger the top half of the blade trying not to reach the edge of the first patina wave, giving a nice contrast between chaotic and full, wave and contrast, and cleanlines and simple grey.
I like it, but I made some mistakes as you might notice. Tha base of the blade rusted and had to sand it, will dip it in vinegar again, to blacken it. Any idea on how to finish this?
Another mod I'm doing is sanding-reprofiling all the handle. First I did a moded ergo mod and I'm also planning on a lanyard but maybe also some other material inserts.
Any Idea?
The other thing I don't know is how could I draw with ink on the wood. DO I use a marker? or a paintbrush and ink? Will the ink stain and run?
here are some pics!
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