Things that cause cool patinas

C

CubeLW

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Jul 16, 2014
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Cleaned up my gelbu to chop some fruits for lunch and noticed that cutting a banana long ways causes a blue black color, limes cause a gold color, and those combined cause a really sweet looking red swirl. Anything else cause nice colors? Maybe pics of your patina. I tried taking a pic but lightbulbs don't shine bright. Gonna have to wait for tomorrow's sun.
 
Yeah I don't get the banana thing. I have an old folder I keep in my desk drawer and used it once in awhile to just start peeling and it turned it all black in no time.

It did clean up with some effort, I don't think it really etched, just kind of stained.
 
Bawanna said:
Yeah I don't get the banana thing. I have an old folder I keep in my desk drawer and used it once in awhile to just start peeling and it turned it all black in no time.

It did clean up with some effort, I don't think it really etched, just kind of stained.
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Bananas work in mysterious ways
 
Cutting up a steak gives some nice blues, and the heat helps speed up the process. Potato also does a nice blue color.

Cider vinegar will give a nice gray/black color and is my favorite thing to use. Any citrus tends to do kind of an ugly yellow/orange rusty color. Hot sauce will also do the yellow/orange thing.
 
We have a contingent who work hard to keep their carbon steel shiny. Another contingent who work hard to put on a patina. And then a third, amongst whom I count myself, who don't do anything special and just let the blades age as they may.

I must admit though, the initial stages of discoloration can be fascinating. There must be amazing chemistry and physics behind those exotic colors.
 
I did a a lot of fruit cutting with D2 steel this summer. Apples banana mango guava pear orange kiwi...
The fruit causing the fastest patina was Pomme Grenade.
The ambient temperature was 100F. I cut the fruit and by the time I extracted all the little berries (?) from the grenade my knife had turned black (10-15 minutes)
Later I testet 100% pom Grenade juice not from concentrate and nothing happened.
Maybe the juice was from a different subspecies or they pasturized it killing all the enzymes changing the ph or what not.
 
I was sitting here thinking, "What the heck is a Pomme Grenade??? Some sort of explosive French apple?"


OHHHHH... pomegranate :D:thumbup:
 
Pomme-grenade I swear I saw it like this in safeway or some other store. Never checked the dictionary and don't really use it in everyday writing. . No clue why they used the french word. In German it's Granatapfel ( apple grenade) so never thought that "grenade" would be super unusual in English.
Glad I learned something.
Pomme Grenade launcher anybody?

Btw. What is pome and granate? Real English words or butchered French?
 
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Apples make nice blues. Ketchup tends (if my memory is working) to make greens and yellows.
 
Jens Schuetz said:
Btw. What is pome and granate? Real English words or butchered French?
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wikipedia knows all, tells all....

Etymology

The name pomegranate derives from medieval Latin pōmum "apple" and grānātum "seeded". This has influenced the common name for pomegranate in many languages, e.g. granada in Spanish or grenade in French.

Perhaps stemming from the old French word for the fruit, pomme-grenade, the pomegranate was known in early English as "apple of Grenada"—a term which today survives only in heraldic blazons. This is a folk etymology, confusing Latin granatus with the name of the Spanish city of Granada.

The genus name Punica refers to the Phoenicians, who were active in broadening its cultivation, partly for religious reasons.

Garnet comes from Old French grenat by metathesis, from Medieval Latin granatum, here used in a different meaning: "of a dark red color". This meaning perhaps originated from pomum granatum because of the color of pomegranate pulp, or from granum in the sense of "red dye, cochineal".

The French term grenade for pomegranate has given its name to the military grenade. Soldiers commented on the similar shape of early grenades and the name entered common usage.
 
the heraldic pomegranate at windsor castle. symbol of catharine of aragon - henry the eight's 1st wife (not beheaded like the rest)
OrielWindowNov08023.jpg


her pomegranate combined with the tudor rose:
pomegranate.jpg


used on a shield halved on the right, a rose onthe left half. arms of the bilson family.

in herald-speak: Gules a Tudor rose dimidiated with a pomegranate or, the stalk and leaves vert.
in english: Red, a white rose halved with a gold pomegranate, stalk and leaves green.
m472b.png
 
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Chopped a coconut today. It leaves a patina that looks just like car oil. All blue,red,yellow,black
 
I just used a carbon steel mora to cut up a pommegrante and by the time i was done eating the seeds, i went to wash off the knife and it was black! Totally freaked me out. I washed it, then gave it a quick strop, and it permanently etched the blade. Kinda cool....
 
on a different note, pommygrenades aside, tannic acid will turn red rust into a nice black oxide form that will protect the blade from further red rust attack, it's essentially the black you get from forging villagers. it does not attack bare steel, so to blacken, you must first let the blade rust all over. tea doesn't have strong enough tannins, so a commercial grade of tannic acid must be used. you can buy tannic based rust treatments premixed, i got a litre on ebay, will last me for years. brush it on, let it dry 24hrs, dampen it with water again, wait 24 hrs again, wash & dry. oil.

here's one i prepared earlier. was delivered by PO covered in a fine coat of new red rust. musta been a leaky PO van.

ball-mace.jpg


did NOT clean off the red rust before tanning it.

p.s. = the head of that mace do look a bit like a pommy granite. :)

ball-mace.jpg
 
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Lol. Thanks for rubbing it in even more. Pommy Granite. :-p

The pictures look cool. Gotta order some tannic acid. It's probably interesting on leather and wood as well.

Using carbon knives in the kitchen I found a substance even more potent than bum grenade juice. It's Papaya. A really deep black where it covers the metal and a light halo in the periphery probably due to oxygen reacting there too.
 
Can't say I recommend it cuz it turns hands and everything else black too, but I cut up some fresh black walnuts with a new Dui Chirra and clean KLVUK and it left some sweet patina.

This is right after


This is after some 0000 steel wool on the blade and sanding the handle


And this is how my kitchen knife is doing. I've noticed onions and garlic do a particularly good job at putting on patina, as does mango and of course citrus fruits
 
Howard Wallace said:
We have a contingent who work hard to keep their carbon steel shiny. Another contingent who work hard to put on a patina. And then a third, amongst whom I count myself, who don't do anything special and just let the blades age as they may. I must admit though, the initial stages of discoloration can be fascinating. There must be amazing chemistry and physics behind those exotic colors.
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What is the split in the market for shiny vs patina seekers? I play and build guitars and in that market it is called 'relic' or 'relicing' to make a new guitar look like it is fifty years old while others fret over tiny scratches in the finish of nearly new instruments. The relic-inclined group are a small minority yet hated by the pristine keepers; "how can you do that to such a nice guitar?". I got a cheap relic guitar in a trade, it needed a lot of functional repairs to be playable, but now it feels like an old broken-in pair of jeans.
Any knife makers that sell a line of beat-up and worn new knives at premium prices?
 
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