Thread: Creating Patina

OH gosh do not rush the process....
Just shave with it for a month and wipe it
dry with tissue each time....

For carbon steel kitchen knives I have been known to slice lemon,
or apple as thin as possible. Wipe it dry with tissue, rinse after
a moment under very hot tape water, make one more slice... Since I get 50+ slices out
of a lemon the process takes a bit of time for the rinse and dry per slice...
The acid starts oxidation (rusting) and by doing it a little by the steel develops a thin oxide layer and
no longer imparts that 'iron' flavor to some things. I only have one carbon steel kitchen
knife anymore but even stainless has a moment after polishing where
it can smell/ taste like iron so I also wipe and rub with a little bit of something
slightly acid (vinegar, fruit, onion.... gets sacrificed).

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

...OH gosh do not rush the process...

I always rush every process, and I always overdo everything, which can make me rather manic. If I were to do this again I may either try and protect the edge of use an applicator. Has anyone noticed if the process F's up the edge, or is it just me? It seems to me it's logical that it would F up the edge...

With you on this one Carl - a year or two ago I was all about scouring off every last remnant of pitting, patina and rust in order to blind passing airplanes with my shiny shiny instruments - nowadays I much prefer a bit of history to show (though I'll happily do the sandy thing if there's active rust that needs terminating).

Carl,

I was using a dietary aloe vera gel. I am doing a little experiment with it too. I just dumped some over a blade I do not use. I also mix tea tree oil and aloe gel so it could have been the EO.





update...So after 30 minutes the blade turned out like this:



I am thinking the citric acid might be the culprit.

Urine. Age old method of aging almost all metals. First found out about this in an art class I took in college. Used by both artist and forgers!

Acid dip is all that is needed for creating patina, easiest acidic source is vinegar.

Yeah, the vinegar worked really well for me. Mephisto, try the aloe without anything else. As you saw from the picture using the raw juice squeezed from the plant, the result was very brown.

However, I soaked a Swedish Eric Anton Berg for hours in the vineagar with little result. May have been due to the different steel or maybe the vinegar had already 'reacted' fully when i put the first razor in (I added the second to the bowl an hour after the first).

I'm buying two Swedish framebacks in original condition, original scales and all and will leave them just as they are. I'll hone them of course. Have I already mentioned that? I may have already mentioned that...

Vinegar worked for me the best too. Heat it up, put the clean blade in it, leave it for 10 minutes, take it out, clean the blade, and repeat until the color you are after appears. Reheat the vinegar if it cools meantime

In my experience, about 3x10 minutes in 20% vinegar makes the blade almost black.