Very casually making a knife

[grayer3890]

hi there i going to give a throw at making a simple tanto style knife out of 1095 steel im not worried about sharpening or keeping it sharp but i need some help on the color of the blade. Does anyone know any cheap ways to tint the color of the steel gray or black?

 

[Munky88]

after your oil quench you could put some lacquer on it. which will keep it a kind of roughed up black, with some dark greys showing. Not sure how durable it is though.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=590773 like that.

 

[Teknition]

Etching the blade in ferric chloride after its all sanded out will give you a greyish/black color. The etch will give a bit of added protection against corrosion too.

Brad
www.AndersonKnives.ca

 

[P.Brewster]

I use this stuff:

http://www1.mscdirect.com/CGI/NNSRIT?PMPXNO=1659093&PMT4NO=52639341

which seems to be identical to this stuff:

http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/black.htm


It quite toxic and leaves your blade with a funny smell, but otherwise works OK. Don't put it in a Mountain Dew bottle, and later use it to wash down your Tylenol like my buddy did. Follow the directions - scrub with TSP (or even dish soap) and a scotch-brite pad to clean, rinse, apply tool black while metal is still wet (I use another scotch-brite pad to apply - it seems to help the consistency), let sit 1 min, rinse, dry, then hit with fine steel wool (very important).

You can also do a burnt oil finish with vegetable oil. It requires surface heat above 500°, and has a very rustic, un-refined look. However, if you then remove this finish with a wire wheel (or the like), you're left with a pleasant grey color, as long as you don't go too far.

Another method is to heat the blade and rub it with a cloth. (the cloth should be smoking and burning). The Japanese used silk; cotton seems to work too. This method is pretty unreliable and inconsistent.

 

[AcridSaint]

Etching the blade is a simple solution. I hear you can use lemon juice and vinegar if you don't have FC. Never tried it, always just used FC.

 

[cjd1980]

you could bol the blade in vinagar it'll turn the blade a nice gray is cheap and safe and easy to do

 

[SCMknives]

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4366141

I've used cold blue from walmart...it works wonderfully. I use multiple coats. It will also help protect the metal from corrosion(slightly).