What causes the best patina on 01?

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SuzukiGS750EZ

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Dec 30, 2008
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So, when i got my knife i had no rust at all for months. I decided i wanted to take down the rough finish and polish the blade up a bit with some fine sandpaper, so it came out really nice. I take it out and WOAH, theres tiny spots of rust! So now, i'm going to resand it, and try and put a patina on it. The thing is, i've seen tons of threads on patinas using potatoes, vinegar, apples etc. but which one produces the best looking, longest lasting patina and how do you do it? I have blue liners, brass pins and a maple burl handle on it and it's a full tang, so i'd like to get the whole thing, without ruining the handle materials.
 
Any of the purple/blue colored heirloom potatoes work nicely on O1. There's not much to it, just cut some up and let it sit for a while, then experiment from there.
 
ok this may sound weird but get a little ky jelly about a tablespoon and about 1/16th of a teaspoon tartaric acid( not cream of tartar) and mix well. Apply to knife. let sit about 20 minutes then experiment from there. I got the idea from a report that a pro art forger was mixing his paints with ky to get the right type of brushstroke look to copy a specific artist.
 
I have none of that :-\ im going out with it tomorrow so im trying the same thing ive heard, vinegar. Keep the ideas coming because i will try the other methods when i get a chance for supplies, but for now its the vinegar. I did notice that the vinegar is removing the rust and it's sitting on the surface of the vinegar, nice touch!
 
Cut lemon, rub lemon half on blade for a few minutes, rinse and repeat several times. Knife will turn a gray/blue color in about 15 minutes.
 
I got a light gray/oil on water look on my knife with some light orange in some areas. Is this enough patina to prevent rust? Will it get a more natural patina as time goes on? And can a patina wear off?
 
Is there a way to evenly apply the mustard and or vinegar without having to dip it on the vinegar but keeping a mostly even finish?
 
I tried lemon juice today and it produced the best finish. A lot of rust was present and i could see some holes in my blade, did the vinegar/lemon clean the knife while making the patina? Boy, a patina in progress smells!
 
What is the rust looking color that wasn't on my knife before the process? Is that actual rust or is it fine? Its orangish.
 
To get an even finish I soak a paper towel in vinegar and wrap the blade.
For a tiger stripe look use a q-tip or toothpick and add stripes with mustard.
 
SuzukiGS750EZ said:
Next patina i will try potatoes. My patina came out awesome! I was afraid it would look ugly.
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I tried a potato patina at first, and found that it didn't quite make a very deep patina as I started getting rust spots afterward. Then of course, the darker I went with it, the less "blue" it was and I eventually just wound up going with a very deep vinegar patina.

That is on Case CV steel though, not sure how O1 will react but I've heard they're similar.

One thing I'll say about vinegar is that it works much faster than potato. It only took maybe 30 minutes to get a nice dark patina using vinegar. Plain white vinegar, 5% acidity.
 
I got a lovely dark patina on my Spyderco Gayle Bradley by soaking in lemon juice. Did the same to an Opinel by soaking a cloth in lemon juice and wrapping the blade in it.
 
I used a plastic lemon with juice inside on my d2 para. I took the blade off,

put some lemon small container with juice, soaked the blade for a few hours

a few times for a dark patina.

I tried vineager and mustard which didnt work before using lemon juice.
 
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