I used kitchen roll, the patina took on the ruffles and ridges in the cloth rather than a flat all over patina
I used kitchen roll, the patina took on the ruffles and ridges in the cloth rather than a flat all over patina
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I like that idea. Vinegar over night didn't really Patina it at all, maybe its the Japanese steel on Spydercos
“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity...”
― John Muir
I put a hot vinegar patina on many knives I make, it is long wearing and protects decently (need to add a top coat of something), but I bring enough white vinegar to ALMOST a simmer in a pot, then put the blade in or pour into a tall skinny glass and put the blade in. It works faster this way (as in minutes), plus it lets the pores in the steel open a bit allowing the vinegar to penetrate deeper. Of course, a good degreasing beforehand is mandatory.
if you have the time you could leave it on some fresh cut oak the tannin in the oak with make your blade black, also i cut some green miniature pine cone type things believe them to be from an alder tree, use the while green cut the dark green outer off and wipe over the blade to leave a lovely looking deep purple almost looks like black/blue berry juice this happened within a few seconds.
you could try olive wood too but be careful as it makes metal rust fast, me mate left a scrapper on some and it rusted in a few hours to the point he had to restore the scrapper
I put a vinegar patina on my opinel no.5. It was pretty good but a bit plain. Then I tried putting some Russian mustard stuff on my no.7, I applied it in a blotchy fashion with an ear bud. Upon returning 2 hours later, I discovered a lovely swirly patina. It kind of looked like damascus blade