Thread: Tale of the Ugly Duckling (aka intentionally rusted razor)

Soooooo.... a little while back I got a Special #1 off the bay for miraculously less than $20 or something.. When I got it the blade was fine, hone wear straight and even, bevel didn't have chips or anything. Anyways... the scales were a little boring so I ripped them off (remember that thread?), then the blacking on the tang was very thin/patchy so I maased that off. But I missed it. So... I decided to learn rust bluing. And so I rust blued the whole razor. Now it is all done and I have a pitch black Special #1. Note, the finish has some uniform slight pitting because at the beginning I left it two days without carding. however its okay cus its uniform and makes it a satin finish.
Pictures (before):

RUSTED OMG OH NO!!!!

BLACK!!!! AWESOME!

WOAH.

I should do that, that's hawsome

did you ever document your process? I'd be really interested to see exactly how this is done, and what it does to the edge holding ability (if anything). does this cause any edge damage that you can tell?

According to Mike Blue it shouldn't change the steel at all, its just a patina (albeit a very durable tick patina that is part of the steel itself). From my initial observations, it will pit the blade if it gets away from you, and that may cause the swiss cheese effect which is what I'm really worried about. HOWEVER... if you did it more carefully, its definitely safe. I'll post my procedure later, but in essence the process I did was rust, card (sand basically), rust, card, rust, card, rust card boil rub. I think, if one were more patient (its not that I wasn't patient I just didn't realise) it seems it may be better to go rust card boil rust card boil.... rust card boil rub. And card it more than I did. I think thats what let the rust get away from me. The whole process took me about a week I wanna say? Maybe a little less?

I'll post all the details later though.

The other nice thing is if you do it right (which I think I did chemically, just the overall aesthetic is not perfect- ie the black finish is right, the pitting is wrong) the blade is now rust/water proof.

Well, Mike would be a good source for sure.. very cool... by the way, if you want to try again on a big W&B 7/8 I have, I'd love to see it in all black.

cool post

First off, I want to try a couple more razors myself to get the technique down because honestly I love the rough shod look, but others may not, and the pitting may swiss cheese on me, I have to scale it up (see the other thread/poll lol) and hone it to find out. I may just set the bevel to see. We'll see.

This was the process. I did it all DIY, so each step I'll explain. This was my procedure, afterwards are notes wear I think I can improve.

1-First, you need Ferric Chloride, an etchant solution. If you can buy it/have it, great, move on to the next step. If you don't, get Muriatic Acid (HCl) in the most pure form you can. I got mine at Lowe's (hardware store) and it is 33ish% by weight, and if you do the stoich. out thats a really high molarity (chemical concentration). Then, dissolve a lot of iron into it. I used steel wool. keep dissolving 'til it won't take it anymore. Safety Alert! HCl in strong concentrations (in any concentration actually) is HIGHLY volatile, and incredibly poisonous. Work with it outdoors and stand/sit upwind of your reaction tub or use a fume hood specially designed for this. The iron dissolving reaction is highly exothermic and releases a lot of hydrogen gas. Hydrogen gas is flammable/low explosive and toxic. Outdoors and upwind/fume hood. The solution is likely to boil, splatter or "erupt" if you add too much reagent at a time, so best is to add small bits of steel wool to a PLASTIC or GLASS, WIDE MOUTHED container of HCl. HCl and FeCl3 should both be stored in plastic or glass- they will eat through metal. I wore safety glasses, long, thick clothing, and chemical approved, thick gloves. Let your solution sit a while 'til it turns a shade of yellow. Mine was pee yellow, Mike said his is brownish like tea or coffee. Mine was blue/green/gray to start and its probably from contaminants, probably the Chromium in the steel wool, but it'll change colour in a day or two. If there is a slurry at the bottom thats cool it doesn't seem to matter. The liquid at the top is what you use.

2- Second you need a sweat box. Somethign that'll keep the humidity up and nice and warm (so it can rust... ). If you have one, great. If not... I made a "greenhouse". We had a clear plastic box in our garage that I suspect is some form of lexan or acrylic. Doesn't really matter. Just something very clear, smooth, and a bad conductor. You can even make a box from lexan from Lowes or something (hardware store). I then got gold wire (plated) from AC Moore (craft store) strung it through the pin hole, and hung it in the box. The box was sealed with electrical tape. I had a dish of water at the bottom, which kept the humidity at 100%. (if the box is sealed and there is excess water, the humidity will always be at the dew point, ie. 100%) Mike uses a sealed box with a light bulb for heat. I left mine in the sun. Both work.

3- Prep. Pits get slightly to much worse, and a mirror finish won't work well. So... the best is a satin finish. I used 1k to even it out, but can't really say what is best because I'm not 100% satisfied yet.

4- Treatment. I would not open the ferric chloride near anything you like, because even trace contact forms rust. I was literally leaving rusty fingers prints in the sink after I washed my hands, and there is rust all over my sweat box, which is plastic even, so. Anyways. Grab your chemical gloves (or in a pinch latex gloves, just be fast) dip a rag or some paper towel in FeCl3, and wipe the blade with it. Hang in the sweat box. Seal the box.

5- Wash rinse repeat. After 24 hours you should have a thin film of rust. You're supposed to use a rotary wire brush to "card" the rust off- but not make it shiny again, leave the patina- but I didn't have this so I used steel wool. Works fine but is more work. Wipe it with more FeCl3, let it rust. Wash Rinse Repeat till it looks dark with some rust.

6- Boil. Boil the razor in hot water til it turns fully black. Mine didn't fully turn black, but thats okay because this finish stands up to Maas! Right after boiling while its still hot, treat it with- you're supposed to use 50/50 linseed oil/beeswax mixture- but I could only find linseed and the rust was getting away from me so I used that and it seems fine. Safety Alert! Linseed oil dries with an exothermic reaction and is highly flammable! If you leave a rag soaked in linseed oil laying around, there is a possibility that it could spontaneously combust! make sure to wash rags with linseed oil right after use, and never keep a bunch of them together, try to open em up and spread em out to dry!

NOTES: Instead of rust card rust card rust card etc rust card boil wipe, I think it should be rust card boil rust card boil etc rust card boil wipe. Since you can stop and resume or restart at any point, boiling won't hurt it or cut you short. However, I think what it will do is keep your blade "safe". The rust is active and might get out of hand (like mine did) where the black oxide is permanent but inactive (boiling converts rust Fe2O3 to the black stuff, which I believe is FeO, correct me if I'm wrong). So if you rust card boil, you form the patina, boil it in and kill the rust. So it won't run away from you.

Wow, that's weird. This sort of thing always seems to happen on these forums. I just rust blued three razors last week, but I had done a few batches of "experiments" on junkers that I wasn't worried about before that. I was planning to put up some pics in a couple days for those interested. My only problem with it is that most scales just seem too mundane for the blade after you're through.

hey pete, have you noticed any edge problems with the blades you've rust blued?