staining a blade

Joined
Jan 9, 1999
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Hi guys. Just wanted to get some ideas on staining a couple of Carbon V blades. These are Red River models that I am going to use for camp knives for muzzleloading. I have put lemon juice on them and it sure did stain them but made them look kind of blotchy/foggy. The smaller of the two it made look kind of rusty, even though it isn't. Didn't leave it on for very long maybe a half hour. How or what can I use to get a nice aged patina on them. Oh by the way one is the Red River butcher knife and the other is the AMerican Hunter model.
Each was $6 plus shipping from Discount knives. Very well made and sharpen up well like Carbon V does. Watch yur top knot!
 
I've used a product by the JAX company that is designed for blackening steel. It runs at $20(Canadian) for a 20 oz. bottle. Check a Jewellers supply house, that's where I got mine. It contains Selenic acid, but is fairly weak( I got splashed by a drop, and wasn't even burned). The patina comes out as a matte black and seems to work on most alloys(even 440C).
 
Are you sure that was 440C??? The active ingredient of all cold blues is selenic acid ... they don't work on stainless.

If this stuff really works on stainless I'm very interested.

-Cougar Allen :{)
 
Brian,

I, also, am interested in the product that blackens carbon steel! I use strictly carbon & Damascus blades for using knives and would like to blacken my carbon blades. I've tried leaving the blades in a tomatoe, however, I was never satisfied doing that. If you don't care you could e-mail me at lpace@hyden.tds.net to talk about the process, etc; THANKS!
 
ME TOO! MORE INFO PLEASE!!!

Can you imagine The Outsider in BLACK!?

HELL yes...

Jim March
 
Thanks for the info. I tried an orange today and seems to work fine. Kind of puts a nice patina shade that is multicolored on them.
 
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