The Blue Thread

Isn't bluing just a controlled oxidation? I would think with a good wash it would be fine!!!
 
Precisely; once the oxidizer is neutralized with ammonia, all that needs to be done is a thorough scrubbing with dawn (or similar). As willic stated the bluing left behind is not a coating that can chip / wear away; instead it is the natural surface of the steel that has been colored through the application of an acid.

My .02, clean em to get any oils (and other shop gunk) off and cook away!
 
Cool, you guys slice an apple, eat it and call me in the morning. Hahahaha.

I had a feeling it would be okay. Just didn't know exactly what they used to blue the blades with.
 
I'm not a chemist, I'm not a metallurgist, nor can I even recall the last time I stayed in a Holliday Inn Express; however, I don't concern myself with patina when it comes to food prep. Patina is an oxidation. Blueback coting is an oxidation. While my logic may be flawed, I don't see why one oxidation is perfectly fine, but another is dangerous. I wouldn't think twice about it.
 
esdunbar said:
I'm not a chemist, I'm not a metallurgist, nor can I even recall the last time I stayed in a Holliday Inn Express; however, I don't concern myself with patina when it comes to food prep. Patina is an oxidation. Blueback coting is an oxidation. While my logic may be flawed, I don't see why one oxidation is perfectly fine, but another is dangerous. I wouldn't think twice about it.
Click to expand...

That's an oscar winning post.

Well like I said earlier, I had a feeling it would be okay. I'm sure there's not enough toxicity on the blade to kill or get an adult real sick. However when I food prep, the food I prep goes straight into the mouths of my 4 and 6 year old. Little things like tummy aches, sores, burning sensations, headaches and the like is what I'm concerned about. Those symptoms wouldn't really bother me personally, but when my child is experiencing them, I instantly get 10 times more concerned.
 
My 0.02 is that the chances are, you'll be perfectly fine as long as the blade is thoroughly cleaned prior to use.

The Perma Blue that Andy referenced is a commercial solution sold for cold bluing steels. Some of the individual compounds of the Perma Blue per MSDS that Andy provided can certainly pose health risks if you look that them individually and also as a final formula. However, the resultant product (at least the primary product, can't say I know enough of the process to know of byproducts, if any) of applying the said solution to a steel is magnetite (essentially an oxidized form of iron/Fe). Now as lot of you know, traditionally, cold bluing is used primarily for spot treatment of gun finish, but it's a rather ineffective method for rust control (but obviously in this case, it's done more for cosmetic purposes, and I certainly love the way these newer models have turned out by Andy & Co.). Part of the reason for that is the cold bluing isn't very resistant to abrasion. So assuming the blade was thoroughly cleaned after the bluing (and/or before using for food prep), I'd guess the only agent we should watch out for is the aforementioned magnetite. I just looked up an MSDS for magnetite, and for ingestion, it says "Extremely large oral dosages may produce gastrointestinal disturbances" So could you be ingesting some of this stuff? perhaps... Is it going to get you sick? highly unlikely....

Now the disclaimer is this is only an educated guess from an IT Project Lead, who doesn't typically get very technical as I have no formal IT background (I have people skills dang it!) with a chemical engineering background (which essentially means I haven't used what I learned in college since college). And I also use chef's knives and paring knives for all my kitchen duties, so it's also not likely I'll get to act on what I'm supposedly proposing.
 
I was wondering how the finish would hold up to wear, but sounds like it would perform similar to a patina. Anyone batoned their Blueback through some wood yet?
 
It would be about the same as using a Parkerized or nitrided steel. A good wash and you should be ok.
 
I gave it a good scrubbing with the rough and soft side of a dish washing sponge and then prepped dinner with it. I cut potatoes, garlic and onions for a Shepard's pie. I wanted to see how the bluing would change after all this, if any. So I left some chopped onions on both sides of the blade. This is a good way to force a cool, almost spalted looking patina on a carbon blade. Well 20+ minutes of letting the onion and juices sit on the blade and I really couldn't notice a difference. It didn't make the blade seem any darker. Well perhaps on a few spots, but nothing significant.

One thing that was cool- normally if you leave the juice of an onion on 01 steel for 20 mins, you'll see the juice and parts of the blade turn a light orange color, I've always called this the birth of rust. It's kinda cool actually. Well after leaving it on the blue for over 20 mins, there was absolutely no orange at all. I could barely smell the infamous burnt hair patina smell. So the blue is really a great rust inhibitor.

This blue stuff is pretty cool. The fact that you can food prep and not have it change in appearance all that much, almost renders it a stainless blade IMO. I buy stainless because I don't like my blade to change all that much after using and then washing. Well this blue stuff doesn't change a whole lot. I likey:thumbup:!

I'm gonna change the name of this thread to "The Blue thread". Feel free to put your thoughts, likes and dislike about the blue blades in here.
 
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Oh yeah, I just have one more thing to say about the blue....


[video=youtube_share;o6F6u5TIUbI]http://youtu.be/o6F6u5TIUbI[/video]
 
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