What's your favorite patina??

roninelh

roninelh

Joined
Dec 14, 2010
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610
After a lot of discussion about patina lately (the patina haters thread), It got me thinking about patinas on my knives. When I get a new blade and I want a patina on it..... I cut up a whole fresh pineapple. I don't know exactly what it is, I just like the patina that a pineapple gives carbon steel.

So the question is, What are your patina rituals? natural, forced vinegar, or a preferred fruit or meat?

A couple examples, this is after just the pineapple on the 85, next to a fresh 99 for reference. It's hard to photograph a good patina with all of it's blues and rainbowey colors...


and my beloved ebony boys knife, you can see a line on the tang where I stuck it into a pineapple for a couple mins while attending to an angry baby girl...
 
I like my knives to earn their patinas naturally, but have no ritual. Food prep obviously helps a lot, but I'm not selective about what I cut. I like this Aitor Castor for food prep, so it's built up a patina faster tha most, even though the steel doesn't patina as quickly as 1095, and certainly nothing like O1.

 
With a little Flitz, you can clean up that forced patina and your patina line. :D

I think a blade should earn its natural patina over time.

Tom
 
While not a traditional, I have carbon steel that I like to force patinas on.

backside
IMG_1521_zps0fa54631.jpg

front
IMG_0414_zps4d6737a6.jpg

How I forced (just the back, front is natural patina) the back with scale pattern drops of vinegar and hot sauce.

20130701_174957_zps5e22f385.jpg
 
The real kind. Forcing a patina is like throwing dirt on a clean car just to make it look like you drive it off road.
 
Double Ott said:
With a little Flitz, you can clean up that forced patina and your patina line. :D

I think a blade should earn its natural patina over time.

Tom
Click to expand...

I certainly don't force patinas or go crazy (leaving it in a potato overnight etc..), but I like to get a bit of a base with some food prep. I think that the gradual natural patinas look the best overall. I'm not a heavy user though and I like to help them along with my pineapple cutting and an occasional apple.. Is food prep considered forcing??

Btw, I love that Aitor, great looking patina as well!
 
Whether perceived as 'real' or not, a blade with a forced patina will still 'earn' it's patina nevertheless, assuming it gets used. The patina changes continually with each exposure to foods and anything else that would make the 'earned' patina in the first place. Forcing a patina just gives it a head-start. I'm beginning to view it as good preventive maintenance, as the light rust-spotting on some of my currently un-patinated blades is reminding me I'd be better off forcing it from the start.

My favorite method so far is a dip in a hot water & vinegar mix.


David
 
Your #15 looks good. How long did you leave it in the pineapple? That's all you did?

I've done the vinegar patina on one of my Becker fixed blades, but otherwise so far all my other 1095 knives I just let them gradually take on whatever character they will over time.
 
arizonaranchman said:
Your #15 looks good. How long did you leave it in the pineapple? That's all you did?

I've done the vinegar patina on one of my Becker fixed blades, but otherwise so far all my other 1095 knives I just let them gradually take on whatever character they will over time.
Click to expand...

I just cut the pineapple up for the most part. I left it stuck in there for 3-4 minutes while I tried to calm down my fussy 3 month old baby. I didn't expect it to have a line on the tang when I pulled it out. The pineapples just react very quickly with the 1095 in my experience. I've cut a couple apples with it at lunch too. Maybe it's because it had a forced patina on it when I got it from mink (quickly polished off) even though it looked good. This one just seems to want a patina.
 
1095 patinas up very nicely doesn't it? I can't remember the last time I cut up a pineapple, but fruit has been so inexpensive here this summer, I've been eating more than usual, strawberries, peaches and nectarines, melons, and apples of course. I like to slice an apple as I'm eating it, and do this with whatever knife I have in my pocket at the time. I always wipe down the blade after, so not all the carbon steel knives I use patina much, if at all, like this. 1095 does though. Apart from the apples, I probably cut up more vegetables than fruit.
 
This one just cut up one apple. I wiped it off and rinsed and dried a few minutes later.
 
Obsessed with Edges said:
Whether perceived as 'real' or not, a blade with a forced patina will still 'earn' it's patina nevertheless, assuming it gets used. The patina changes continually with each exposure to foods and anything else that would make the 'earned' patina in the first place. Forcing a patina just gives it a head-start. I'm beginning to view it as good preventive maintenance, as the light rust-spotting on some of my currently un-patinated blades is reminding me I'd be better off forcing it from the start.

My favorite method so far is a dip in a hot water & vinegar mix.


David
Click to expand...

This is my opinion too. My outdoors blades all get a forced patina for a base using apple cider vinegar. This is preventative maintenance. I was in a river bailing out a canoe for an hour and the only spot of rust on my blade that was submerged the whole time was on the edge where it didn't have the patina due to sharpening. Over time the deeper colors and swirls appear with use.
 
I've forced patinas on some and others I've just used to see what develops on its own. (I politely ask the knife which it would prefer:) )
I have found that with the 'earned' patinas, I tend to get what looks like pepper spots rather than an overall grey. I may start forcing more.

I dip a paper towel in apple cider vinegar and wrap it around the blade. Let it sit a bit, then wash off with baking soda. Wipe down with mineral oil, and good to go. I don't care for the taste that a carbon blade gives the fruit- after it's got a patina, do you get less of that taste?
 
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