Spalting Enhancement?

S

sonorantree

Joined
Nov 23, 2014
Messages
104
Maybe one of you shop guys can chime in on this...

I suppose not everyone likes heavy, high contrast spalting on their knives, but I have heard many comments in favor of such blades. What causes the spalting? What causes the difference in different blades?

And, what about enhancing the spalting after the fact? I was thinking that an acid (muriatic, of more mildly, vinegar or lemon juice) could be applied to the spalted areas of the blade. This should darken the entire area. Then the high spots could be polished leaving higher contrast spalting.

Has anyone ever done anything like that? I am tempted, but am too scared to try it!

Thanks!

Paul
 
Could one of you guys from the shop answer the first part of the question - what causes/makes the spalting and why the difference between blades?
 
Here is an old quote from Andy last year -

Fiddleback said:
Spalted Steel is a proprietary technique that I discovered a few years back. It is not done with chemicals.
Click to expand...

How Fiddleback accomplishes the spalting is a trade secret, as I understand. And as we all know, any good master crafter doesn't reveal all his secrets. :)
 
We don't share the science behind spalted steel. Sorry about that. You can get very deep craggy looking texture with acids and bases as well, but this isn't how we do it.
 
The secret of spalting is actually kept in the same vault as the recipe for KFC[emoji2][emoji2]
 
I didn't mean to pry into trade secrets! But I am very tempted to darken the spalted area on one of my users and then buff out the highlights. I wish somebody else would do it first though! :)
 
I think most who have applied a patina with mustard, vinegar etc. have done this. The valleys stay darker while wear and use polishes up the rest increasing contrast. You can speed this up by stropping the spalted area ;)
 
I just use straight muratic acid applied with a Q tip then cold gun blue right away. These two chemicals react instantly and give a great looking patina. Then just buff or strop the high spots and you get the contrast. Hope it helps.
 
machineage said:
I just use straight muratic acid applied with a Q tip then cold gun blue right away. These two chemicals react instantly and give a great looking patina. Then just buff or strop the high spots and you get the contrast. Hope it helps.
Click to expand...

Any before/after photos?
 
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