Thread: Unusual result

almost looks like "popping the grain" in guitar finishing.. like the bluings taking to some parts of the metal grain but not others

hmmmm. Very unusual.

Blueing is a chemical reaction driven by oxidization, or rather release of free Gibbs energy through a redox reaction.
Oxidization of inhomogenous mixtures of steel usually lead to the part of the steel wich is easier oxidized appearing dark, and the part of the steel with a higher oxidization potential appearing light. That´s how etching a folded Blade is done.

Because there is no pattern evident, I don´t think the steel for the blade got folded,
or it got folded wildly and numerous times. It looks more like the steel itself has become inhomogenous (or was to begin with).
It could be there are some depleted zones. Depletion occours over time, when alloying elements dissolve through the material and agglomerate to certain areas.
This makes the steel inhomogenous and changes the reduction potential of these parts.

I wonder if it affects the performance of the steel. Have you sharpened it yet, and found something unusual?

What kind of steel is it? Looks like the hard grain crystalline structure of the steel didn't take to the blueing process & the softer grain took to it & actually etched a bit. Would be cool to look at it under magnification. No matter, turned out rather nicely!

The pattern is super cool, I like the way it looks.

Charlie

Do you oil your blades? Whenever I blue ferrules on my bamboo rods, any fingerprint or oil mark turns out looking like yor razor. only thing that ever gets consistent results, for me, is washing with dawn dish soap, drying, wash again, drying and then bluing.

Originally Posted by Lesslemming

Blueing is a chemical reaction driven by oxidization, or rather release of free Gibbs energy through a redox reaction.
Oxidization of inhomogenous mixtures of steel usually lead to the part of the steel wich is easier oxidized appearing dark...

Sorry, this reminded me of a song that my gen chem prof taught us to remember the Gibbs free energy equation.

Originally Posted by DPeet

Do you oil your blades? Whenever I blue ferrules on my bamboo rods, any fingerprint or oil mark turns out looking like yor razor. only thing that ever gets consistent results, for me, is washing with dawn dish soap, drying, wash again, drying and then bluing.

I agree.

I think you want to know what happened just so you can repeat it. I wouldn't blame you, it looks cool.

the blade is a vintage Birko (Solingen). It has been modified and hand sanded up to 600 grit IIRC. It was then washed with hot water and cleaned down with acetone before bluing and wearing Nitrile gloves.
Here's a couple of before pics
Thanks for your input.
Grant

Flog it off on ebay as Damascus and charge like a wounded bull...No, just jokes...I like it myself, and I would think that the bluing looks like that due to oil residue as well...I got no idea what them blokes are babbling about up above me, but it sounds like a bad case of Moonshine...


Mick

Just my $.02..... I have read in the past that there is some acetone that has an oil in it and the more expensive stuff does not. It does look like oil residue that was not washed off adequately.