Thread: Patinaed Fredrick Reynolds...

hey... here is a blade that I have been working on... the pitting was so bad on the tang I would have had to take off the entire tang stamp -- so I decided to take the "vintage" approach to this one.... I got rid of all the active rust and most of the stains and surface rust and light pitting...

When I got it to a certain point I decided to stop. I let it soak for 36 hours in a Mustard & vinegar solution.

This thing literally glows blue in daylight.

I'm not going to post it in the Gallery until after I hone it, because I think the bright, shiny bevel is going to add a lot of class to this razor. It might not fit everyones tastes..but I seem to like it more than some of my other mirror finish razors I've been doing.


I spent a LONG time fitting the scales. I must have drawn them ten times before deciding on them. it functions like a dream.








can't wait to get this one honed up and taken to my lightbox at work....

It looks very good. The patination works well & i love the way the scales mimic the blade. I'd be very happy with that!
What mustard/vinegar mix do you use? I'd quite like something like that.

I should have kept track of how much I used... my recipe was something like: The rest of the bottle of white distilled vinegar, and then I squeezed mustard in there until the bottle farted pretty bad. I guess that's not very accurate numbers then I mixed it up with a fork, and just sealed the blade completely submerged in it.


If I had done it with a completely mirror finish blade, it would have been really, really pretty. The patina brings out all the imperfections in the blade, no doubt.

here is a shot in daylight. notice the blue glow:

The recipe's fine! Basically, just chuck them together. It's a great colour. Did you find out if it affects the steel in any way before doing it?

There is a lot of knife maker forums that do this quite often without any ill-affects. I just made sure to soak it really good in hot soapy water for a couple hours after pulling it out of the vinegar solution.

It still has a bit of odor, but I'm letting it air out, its getting weaker and weaker.

It's absolutely gorgeous! =)

Me