Thread: Forced patina on carbon steel

I am thinking about forcing a patina (lemon juice, tomato juice, ect) on my modern dovo carbon steel straight edge. Will it affect the quality of blade/shaves/honing process? Should I not do this? Some places I've read states that it strengthens the blade. Any insight would be much appreciated.

I have done this on some of my older blades. Basically you need to have the steel super clean and degreased. For a really deep patina start by warming the clean blade in vinegar, Charlie has a video on this process. You need to remember rubber gloves because the oil from your fingers will make voids in the finish. Next you can use bluing or a Jax product, they both take you to the same lace. wrap your blade in paper towel and soak it with the bluing and walk away. Leave it sit for several hours, preferably somewhere warm but not hot. Come back and unwrap your blade and let it dry overnight, the color will set deeper that way. The color should be very uneven and almost wobbly looking. That effect will be increased if you scrunch the paper towel first. To finsh it off you can take different routes depending on the effect you are looking for. You can take a toothbrush and dip it in household bleach to make some spots and streaks in the finish, and rinse and the bush lightly with 0000 steel wool and then oil. Or you can go straight to the bush lightly and oil. It makes a pretty close to natural patina effect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRtEPDzCa2A

http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...-patina-2.html
http://straightrazorpalace.com/show-...d-johnson.html

Originally Posted by dghardyjr

I am thinking about forcing a patina (lemon juice, tomato juice, ect) on my modern dovo carbon steel straight edge. Will it affect the quality of blade/shaves/honing process? Should I not do this? Some places I've read states that it strengthens the blade. Any insight would be much appreciated.

Acids can make the steel brittle at the edge. Many people have experienced it, then you need to put a new edge on there.

They use ferric chloride on damascus steels to make the layers show up at least. There are probably a few other chemicals that are used for that too. Search for damascus etching.

Originally Posted by jigane

Acids can make the steel brittle at the edge. Many people have experienced it, then you need to put a new edge on there. ...

Are you talking about hydrogen embrittlement? It doesn't work like "many people" think it does, especially on carbon steels, especially under ordinary home/kitchen processes.

Keep the acids simple, like vinegar, and the methods that have been mentioned and there should be no problems with the steel. If you think about potential penetration into the steel, it's not likely deep enough to escape either stropping or honing over time regardless.

I have never done a razor, but carbon knife blades patina nicely with warm vinegar or most any fruit juice. The process mentioned above will give nice results

I've used the vinegar technique on a few knife blades and it doesn't seem to affect the sharpness, but I do a 12k hone and CrOx afterwards because I like a shiny bevel.

Back in the early 80's when I was young and dumb I used "Limeaway" cleaner on one of my straight razors. It was etched it black and the surface felt like it was galvanized. No longer smooth, it took a lot of buffing and cleaning to get it off. Be sure what ever pattern you want on your blade that it will be very hard to get off if you don't like it, like a tattoo.

Mustard is in the "etc" category!

How about downfalls of a forcing a patina? I see one user stated a brittle edge. Lets just not talk about the "Limeaway" cons! hahaha

Originally Posted by dghardyjr

How about downfalls of a forcing a patina? I see one user stated a brittle edge. Lets just not talk about the "Limeaway" cons! hahaha

Mike Blue put that one to bed. As there are very few people with his level of experience and knowledge of blades and metallurgy, I'm pretty happy to believe anything he says on the issue.