How To What types of non food items patina a blade?

[ISKRA]

Fresh green sticks might give you a light patina too.

 

[Hickory n steel]

Banana peel/stem. Technically it's part of a food, but it is the inedible part. Yes, you don't need a knife for that, but I use one because I really dislike bruised fruit.

I cut the top off mine too.

I say just use it on food items, and it doesn't have to be in the kitchen either.

Peel / eat an apple, start an orange, slice up a little salami, cut your sandwich in half.

You can use your knife in the garden to prune flowers, cut grapes, just cut organic material if you want patina without forcing it.

I don't like skin on my apples, so that tends to be where most of my patina comes from.

 

[Johnnythefox]

Peeling a juicy apple is the best and healthy way or just put it to work.

 

[cudgee]

Curious what you’d bump into on daily life besides vinegar, ketchup, mustard, lemons, etc that would patina your blade?

Just use it, anything you cut will eventually cause patina, bags, rope, cutting up boxes. Just put it in your pocket, enjoy it, admire it and use it.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Ordinarily little or no need to slice them for eating, but I found that red grapes are great for a fast patina on carbon steel blades. I've used grapes to test edges on freshly sharpened knives. Tossing or dropping them onto the edge, to see if they split or stick, is a fun way to test an edge. I found that the grapes work pretty aggressively to darken the steel pretty quick - you can even smell the acid-iron reaction on both the blade and the grape halves, and the fruit of the grape turns blue or black in the process. Grapes don't taste good at all, BTW, if sliced with a carbon steel blade. Just sayin'... ;D

Pickles are good too, for quick patina. Mostly about the vinegar there - although some salt brine content in the pickle juice is sure to help.

I used to use a knife to pierce the stem of bananas. But I found it left some seriously tenacious, sticky sap on blades that doesn't clean up easily. So, to pierce the stem on bananas anymore, I just use my thumbnail. Just piercing the surface is enough for the stem to be snapped easily for peeling, without having to grip the banana so tightly and bruising it.

 

[Johnnythefox]

Brown sauce works but don’t leave it on to long it’s fierce.

it’s also good for cleaning old copper coins we had in England,it shines them a treat.

 

[Old Hunter]

With another Barlow I own (an old Ulster), I cut into a hot, thick pork chop at Rita’s Place outside of Mount Olive one day at lunch. The front third of my blade turned multi-hue blue instantly. I thought it might go away when the blade cooled back to room temperature, but it didn’t. I’ll see if I have before and after pictures to post. OH

Ps took a photo to show change in tip of blade.

 

[black mamba]

Bruce is right, nothing works quicker than cutting warm meat. This was after one small sirloin.

 

[SuzukiGS750EZ]

Here it is pre patina. I’ll post photos once it starts to develop one

 

[lambertiana]

I got a little patina on a CPM-M4 blade by cutting some palm fronds. Since M4 is a lot more resistant to patination than 1095, I would guess that any of my 1095 blades would have developed a pretty good patina under the same conditions.

 

[Will Power]

Brown sauce works but don’t leave it on to long it’s fierce.

it’s also good for cleaning old copper coins we had in England,it shines them a treat.

Shining up old coins??? Don't go to the British Museum and ask to do that

Washing the blade under extremely hot water after using it on fruits (Pears are particularly good) enhances the 'blueing' effect- don't forget to dry it though.... Since we seem to have inevitably drifted back to food items (chemicals too harsh or worse...) cutting fresh Ginger does a good job too.

 

[Riz!]

So I used draino to clear a clog in my children’s bathroom and it blued the steel rim around the drain. I immediately thought about using it for attempting a patina. If I try I will post it.

Strawberries and raw steak are my favorite food items though.

 

[traumkommode]

Ferric Chloride etchant solution from your local hobby shop or Amazon - works great, very quickly.

Do NOT use gun blue.

 

[JohnDF]

Pocket sweat and oils in your hands.

 

[AntDog]

One thing I found that kicks a patina into immediate overdrive is slicing raw garlic. Blades start changing color the second you cut it. After a couple weeks of slicing and dicing garlic your blade will have a hard, dark patina.

Most aggressive fruit I’ve found for this is fresh pineapple. Throws off a hell of a stink when it reacts with the steel and gives a dark patina.

 

[JM2]

carrying on pocket on a sweaty day will turn the spine dark but leave a lot of the blade proper shiny. An interesting effect.