How do I force a really dark patina?

C

cwat320

Joined
Apr 29, 2014
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So I just picked up a my first decent traditional knife, a case swayback jack. Finally found one in cv like I wanted. This will be a user and I'd like to force a patina to help keep the rust away. I'm going for that really dark grey, almost stonewashed look. I know vinegar-type foods are used I'm not sure how to control what it turns out looking like. Any ideas?
 
Moved to Maintenance, Tinkering, & Embellishment.
General Knife Discussion is more for discussing the actual knife, not modification.

The answer is warm/hot vinegar and time.
 
cold apple cider vinegar for a few days to a week. use a steel brush on it once a day.
 
Clean the blade real well with nail polish remover (acetone). I use distilled white vinegar, pour it on a paper towel (preferably one without a pattern, like Viva), wrap the blade and set aside for about an hour. Wash it off under really hot water and blow it out with compressed air/hair dryer and give a spray of WD40. Let sit for a few mins to let the WD40 sink in and then wipe down.

Note, the more you rub it with your fingers with setup WD40 on it, the more even and less dark the finish will become.
 
Hawk45 said:
Clean the blade real well with nail polish remover (acetone). I use distilled white vinegar, pour it on a paper towel (preferably one without a pattern, like Viva), wrap the blade and set aside for about an hour. Wash it off under really hot water and blow it out with compressed air/hair dryer and give a spray of WD40. Let sit for a few mins to let the WD40 sink in and then wipe down.
Click to expand...

I do the pretty much the same procedure with folders whose blades I can't remove, except I soak the blade in ferric chloride for the patina and then soak the whole thing in mineral oil once it's been blown out with air. Just wipe off the excess oil, and you're ready to go. As they say, there's more than one way to skin a cat (my apologies to my cats and to my fellow cat lovers on the forums:D). :thumbup:
 
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