Texas Jack with first attempt of forced patina

thejamppa

thejamppa

Joined
Aug 20, 2009
Messages
2,907
Hi all!

I love my Texas Jack in CV. I tried to make some natural patina on it but I had surface rust formed so I had to clean knife and start all over. Sorry for poor light its middle of night in here and I will take better pictures during daylight.

I did expected grey patina, not multicolored patina... But I got patina that has bluish green, reddish-purple and yellowish shades depending how light reflects.

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I used combination of warm vinegar and citrus juice. Its hard to believe this is same knife i got around 14 days ago.
 
I carry the Case CV Texas Jack more than any other knife I own. It's part of my EDC at my PD job.

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Is this the shade of patina you are looking for?
 
I cut onions, oranges, apples and got mustard on the blades cutting sandwiches.

Wash off and repeat. It didn't take long. The onions and mustard seemed to affect the steel more than anything.

I was cutting up some chicken in a Chick Fil A salad with that spicy dressing too. I use this knife for all sorts of cutting when eating.

I can't stand those little plastic forks. :D
 
I think this is a good phase in the developing of patina. The rainbow coulours is interesting but short lived.
My Stockman locked that way last spring and my sodbuster did this authumn. Right now I carry a minitrapper that has formed yellow? patina. Sometimes one wonder if its the metallcontent or the actual thing being cut that determins the coulours of the first patina. Its one of the small wonders in life that one can have interesting inner thoughts about!
All three caseknifes is of course CV and eventually after some weeks of using they get deep gray. The trapper is now gray in the middle section of the blade as this is the place that gets patina strongest first for me together with the tip. Has to do with how the knife is used. That very first patina that leaws the middle of the knife with patina and the tang-end and front without patina is the ugglyest time in the CVknife life.

Bosse
 
Thanks all!

As its christmas, mustard is must with meat during christmas . I have to say warm vinegar made good base. So now with christmas food, its good use my Texas Jack to get more natural patina.

Now here is how my blades look after few hours of coating and drying. the forced base patina. It looks now so much more than when it was mirror shine blades two weeks ago. This is good start:

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In my experience an onion and apple will give it more of a black appearance, while a potato will give it a nice gray color.
 
I say,
Dont get attached to a special phase of the patina.
Its a everchanging process. Not dramatic but duing to what one does with the knife this protecting gray surface will shange. It doesnt only get darker and darker. sometimes one do things as stiring instant coffee that makes the surface thinner again. Its the rustprotektion that is its main course. Many of us likes the looks of patina and the silverline of the edge but it will wary all the time by use. One week more black after apples and the other mounth gray from potatoes and then a little coulour again after cleaning fat fish. This variation in the detail is the true beauty of patina, its not just gray, but living gray.

Bosse
 
i like the slow ole timey look created by blood chloride as knife is used on game. the process is slower but has great charahter. wash blade soon after use or you get a spotted appearance.
 
Did a little cooking this morning....
Warmed the vinegar in the micro, submerged the knife in it...
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You can see it turning color right away....the blades are bubbling...sup with that??
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After just 5 minutes in the vinegar....
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My learned the hard way tip....makes sure the blades are clean of oils...they will repel the vinegar.

Wipe the blades down with shop rag til you get the desired grey look, thin coat of oil....oh gee, look at the time, I'm late for work again.
 
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thanks all for tips and insight. It helps when I get my stockman in use. Darker the grey patina gets, better the knife looks. Screw the mirror polish...
 
I've noticed that the few times I've cut up garlic it's stained the blade rather quickly. Strawberries are pretty acidic as well.
 
I saw the rainbow effect as well after the 1st hour or so of dip.

The bubbles too. I figured it was the effect of the acid attacking, or diggin into the steel. At any rate, great pics guys. It gives the knives so much more character, even if its forced.
 
rayban said:
Did a little cooking this morning....
Warmed the vinegar in the micro, submerged the knife in it...
Click to expand...

If you're going to do that, you need to add a bit of dill to the vinegar, get a properly pickled finish. :D Seriously though - be a bit cautious about doing this with all knives. Modern Case knives usually have stainless springs, even with CV blades, so there's no change from the vinegar -- but if you have carbon springs as well, you can etch the spring where it contacts the tang, which can effect the walk and talk (and not in a good way).
 
Be very careful about immersing your whole knife in hot vinegar. I did that with a boker stag stockman. The blades got real black and the stag handles swelled up and got real soft. I thought I had ruined the knife. When it dried out the stag scales did not shrink back. I hit the whole knife with 0000 steel wool. That saved it. Brought the stag back to flush with the bolsters and liners and took the blades to a nice gray, rather than black. It's a real good looking knife now. Whew. Funny thing, i did find out that one of the springs was carbon steel and the other was stainless. It turned the one black.
 
kamagong said:
You dip the whole knife in vinegar? Don't the handles reek afterwards?
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Opps...forgot to tell you about the rinse cycle....I held the knife under running water just long enough to get the vinegar off.....THEN oiled it....
Carried it in my pocket all day,,,,good walkie talkie....all is good.
Maybe another light coat of oil b4 I hit the rack.....
 
markhimself said:
Be very careful about immersing your whole knife in hot vinegar. I did that with a boker stag stockman. The blades got real black and the stag handles swelled up and got real soft. I thought I had ruined the knife. When it dried out the stag scales did not shrink back. I hit the whole knife with 0000 steel wool. That saved it. Brought the stag back to flush with the bolsters and liners and took the blades to a nice gray, rather than black. It's a real good looking knife now. Whew. Funny thing, i did find out that one of the springs was carbon steel and the other was stainless. It turned the one black.
Click to expand...

I guess some knives, you just don't want to get wet......
 
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