some patina questions

A

Aerose91

Joined
Feb 11, 2014
Messages
69
I have a H&B Forge tomahawk head coming and I want to put a good patina on it because it will be seeing some hard use. However, this is my first foray into high carbon steel. I know the basics of forcing a patina and boiling vinegar etc but there's a few things I'm not sure of.

Once the patina is applied does the blade have to be resharpened? Also, inevitably some rust will occur down the road, what's the best way to tend to it. Is a scotch brite pad too abrasive? Or very fine sand paper better maybe? I have to do things with natural ingredients so I was planning on coating it with beeswax and using mineral oil for occasional re-application. Anything I'm missing? Appreciate any feedback.
 
When I forced my first patina I used mustard on L6 carbon steel. After I used the mustard I had to touch up the knife a little bit, but not much, When it rusted I used 400 grit emery cloth and it came right out and didn't do too much on the patina, but the little it did I just touched up again with a mustard packet. I did however use mineral oil to prevent further rusting. I hope this helps you a bit, you should also try the Axe, Tomahawk and Hatchet forum.
 
I don't see any significant dulling when forcing patina, but I like to give new edge after doing so to get nice contrast between the blade and edge.
 
Ive tried the mustard patina, soaking in vinegar, and boiling im vinegar and none of them gave me the finish I wanted. Uneven and inconsistent. After trying everything else I bought a a little bottle of Birchwood Casey Super Blue for $10 and fr now on I will just use the right stuff the first time. The edge will need a little touching up but not much. When you touch it up it will take bluing off the edge anyway, so maybe just save the trouble and put finger nail polish on the edge before whichever patina process you use. Remove it with finger nail polish remover afterwards and it will be just as sharpnas before. And lastly, even 2k grit sandpaper removed some of the patina on my projects. I use 0000 steel wool on rust. But the patina is rust so anything that removes iron oxide (red rust) is going to remove an equal amount of patina. Prevention is the best option here
 
Thanks guys, that's exactly what I needed to know. What would you use to sharpen a hawk? Sand paper or a fine file maybe?
 
In my opinion the patina raises so it will slightly feel dull. I patina all of my work knives (all carbon), so after I patina the knife it will not perform as well.
A shiny new bevel looks nice on a patina blade anyways.

For removing rust, I use a soft rubber block with 8000 grit slurry on the block and gently remove rust.
 
Would it be a good idea to redo a patina after a while? Once it's rusted and been resurfaced as few times?
 
i found a full bottle of expired apple cider vinegar which i put it to some good use instead of throwing it away .. without boiling i soak the neither BK14 in it but i had to brush off the black rust on it every 1 to 2 hours and the outcome is quite decent .. the patina will wear out after some use or even during movement in and out of the sheath so you will need to redo it after a while.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top