I decided to strip it and try cold blue. I had some of the stripping gel left from a furniture project of my wife's so I dosed it with that, wrapped it in clear plastic and left it outside for awhile. After a couple of hours there was one spot on the blade where the coating was bubbling. I managed to peel the coating off of the blade fairly easily, with help from a plastic scraper. The coating seems like a rubbery material, maybe a powdercoat. It resists the stripper and sticks pretty well to the rougher areas of the metal. At the end near the bottle opener notch I had to scrape with an old utility knife I had in the garage.
The raw blade had a nice patina already. The handle had a light stonewash with a medium dark patina, the sides of the blade had machining marks and was a bit lighter.
I cleaned the whole thing with soap and water, and then rubbing alcohol. I put the cold blue liquid on with a cotton swab and it started darkending immediately, but it wasn't uniform. As the liquid evaporated it left behind a salt residue. I did a couple of applications, then cleaned the blade. I put on another application of cold blue and the color started to even out some.
I cleaned it again and put on some WD40. This one came fairly dull and the sharpening angles were not uniform from side to side. I tried some freehand sharpening then gave up and sharpened it on my DMT aligner. I used my homemade strop on it and it came out very sharp. My best guess based on the DMT instructions is that it is sharpened to about 23 degrees per side. I would have gone with 20 degrees but that would have required more reprofiling and I figured a blade like this might benefit from a slightly thicker edge.
The raw blade had a nice patina already. The handle had a light stonewash with a medium dark patina, the sides of the blade had machining marks and was a bit lighter.
I cleaned the whole thing with soap and water, and then rubbing alcohol. I put the cold blue liquid on with a cotton swab and it started darkending immediately, but it wasn't uniform. As the liquid evaporated it left behind a salt residue. I did a couple of applications, then cleaned the blade. I put on another application of cold blue and the color started to even out some.
I cleaned it again and put on some WD40. This one came fairly dull and the sharpening angles were not uniform from side to side. I tried some freehand sharpening then gave up and sharpened it on my DMT aligner. I used my homemade strop on it and it came out very sharp. My best guess based on the DMT instructions is that it is sharpened to about 23 degrees per side. I would have gone with 20 degrees but that would have required more reprofiling and I figured a blade like this might benefit from a slightly thicker edge.
