Schrade Blades

jsims999

jsims999

Joined
Jul 1, 2009
Messages
31
Does anyone have a special trick they use on the old blades they pick up at a pawn shop or flea market. Someone told me after you get them looking nice you can dip them in vinegar and water and it will turn the blade dark again. Some of my knivess I like to experiment with. i can get them looking nice but they end up shining instead of having that nice aged dark look. Any suggestions? thanks...Jerod
 
The vinegar or apple trick will work only on Carbon based blades. Stainless will stay nice and new looking..
 
is there a certain kind of vinegar you use? or do you leave them in for long? how do you mix it. lots of vinegar or lots of water? thanks Irv... I was talking about the carbon blades..... I feel much more comfortable trying this with you saying it works.. Do you ever use renisance wax? Does it make them look fake dark or natural aged?
 
Also I have not been collecting long. Is there anything special I should do to preserve my knives. I keep them in my safe and it has a dry rod in it which keeps it dry in there. Other then a little oil on the blade should I do anything else....
 
It wont take too long to form a patina on a blade using the vinegar.
experiment on a user.

I like my blade clean without a patina and clean them with a bunch of different products. Flitz and Brasso are my heavy cleaners. I feel that the patina can hide an ongoing issue that may cause the blade to pit. Just my opinion... worth exactly $0.02

Keep them out of direct sunlight but ya gotta let them out of the vault...
Many folks here like the renisance wax for preservation. I use a car polish on the brass to keep it from tarnishing.
 
For a patina I have gotten good results using carbonated soft drink, I put the knife in a test tube with blades open and fill with 7-up or such (I like something clear so that I can see it working), it takes under half an hour to get a patina. Then rinse in plain water, dry (a hair dryer helps), apply some WD40 and oil.

For a natural looking patina there's nothing like actually using the knife, I've found that cutting meat can give my knives a nice blueish, somewhat irregular color.

To keep my knives well I just do what grandpa used to say: "keep it clean, keep it dry, keep it sharp", but I'm not a collector, so for maintenance I'd follow lrv's advice.

Luis
 
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IMO the best way is to just not worry about "taking care" of it... I never oil mine :eek:
just use it and let it earn its spots. rust doesn't hurt so bad ;)
 
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