Thoughts on my Forced Patina

NDJeep

NDJeep

Joined
Jul 14, 2009
Messages
1,262
First off...I apologize for the crappy pic quality. Got a get me a new digi-cam...

I used yellow mustard for the darker angled lines and then apple vinagar for the overall darker patina.

I should have taken a BEFORE pic but it was an RC-4 with a stripped and semi-polished blade.

http://www.fquick.com/garages/viewgallery.php?action=viewimg&id=281538

http://www.fquick.com/garages/viewgallery.php?action=viewimg&id=281539

http://www.fquick.com/garages/viewgallery.php?action=viewimg&id=281541

It's easily reversible...but I like it. It's very smooth even though it now looks rougher.

Thoughts?
 
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It looks ok. I like the stripes. Perhaps you could mess with it so it looks more like a tiger's?
 
The Mustard-
The method I used was to put a nickel-sized glob of mustard on one side of the blade and spread it all over the blade.

Then, using my index finger wipe off the excess from the blade at the angle seen...several times down the blade. Don't remove all the mustard, just the extra...using a very light stroke.
Repeat with the other side and then lay the knife on its spine with the edge straight up..
You can do that with the thick bladed RC-4....not sure about other knives.

Left it like that for 1.5 hours.
It resulted in very dark stripes which looked pretty cool I thought but I wanted to try vinegar too...and it ended up blending the stripes a little and darkened the metal areas that had no stripes.

The Apple Vinegar-
I poured enough vinegar in a tall cup to stand the knife up, point down, in the vinegar. I then heated the vinegar in the microwave in the plastic cup for 2 minutes.
I then put the knife in the cup, blade down, and left it for about 35 minutes.

Mine is a user and I didnt take the handles off...in fact, the blade of this RC-4 was the only part previously stripped and polished. The tang thru the handle still has the black RAT coating. Looked fine to me before and now with the dark patina the stil-coated tang looks even less noticeable.

Overall...I like it. Looks like a "serious" user...which it is. The RAT RC-4 begs for hard use.
One cool bonus was, with the stripped blade the RAT logo on the blade and the Rowan word was invisible. With the patina those are now visible again.
 
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I still think it looks stained and want to polish it off with Flitz. That is just me. I like to keep them clean. I tried to leave a patina on a Case CV, but could only leave it for 2 days, then I compulsively had to polish it back.
 
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