Lets try a mustard patina!

[Josh Mason]

Had a little flat ground tanto blank made from Aldo's 1095 laying around, and decided to use it as a guinea pig. After a few minutes of research I jumped right in.

I used Plochman's mustard and a few q-tips. I spread the mustard pretty thinly onto the blade and made little swirls and dots etc with the q-tip. The mustard had a grainy texture, and it kind of did it's own thing too without my help.

I left it propped up on the counter on a little pile of q-tips and went and watched a movie.

After the movie, the blade looked like pure rust. The mustard was dry, and everything was orange and gross. I washed it of with a sponge loaded with Dawn dishwashing liquid, and here's what I got!

Pretty damn neat!

Made another kind of stripe/swirl on the other half for test purposes. Looks pretty wild!

The spine really popped out too.

This was super easy, and it's a really cool effect. I'm always so worried about my carbon blades, and it seems that I'm spraying them down with something every hour. Maybe this way I wont have to do that, and I get a cool effect as well. Win win situation for me!

Thanks for looking guys!

 

[richard j]

josh, try dotting mustard in lines all across the blade and let it dry. then soak the blade in vinegar checking it often to see if the blade looks grey where there is no mustard. i did several that way and they looked neat.

 

[Josh Mason]

I was trying to dig for some vinegar in the cabinet tonight but no dice. I'll try that though! I wonder how these are gonna look handled and everything... I'll try a few and see how people like them.

 

[richard j]

josh, shoot me an email and i'll send you some pictures of a few knives i did with mustard and vinegar. they look pretty decent. rje196021@gmail.com

 

[JTR357]

Nice job Josh,that looks wicked cool!:thumbup:

 

[mqqn]

Nice look, Josh -

The quickest acting "patina maker" I have seen so far is frontiertom's bread and butter pickle juice.

I stabbed into his jar at the last gathering with my Case whittler, and the tip, which had been pristine, immediately went grey where it had been in the juice!

best regards -

mqqn

 

[Josh Mason]

Will any old bread and butter pickles work? Or is it specifically his pickles? (I'm assuming he made them)

Nice look, Josh -

The quickest acting "patina maker" I have seen so far is frontiertom's bread and butter pickle juice.

I stabbed into his jar at the last gathering with my Case whittler, and the tip, which had been pristine, immediately went grey where it had been in the juice!

best regards -

mqqn

 

[230grains]

Mustard gives a pretty cool etch, that looks really good.

I soaked this in vinegar, then hit it with scotchbright belts, then repeated etc.. to get the right coloring I wanted. Then I did several layers of mustard applications and dulled it with scotchbright belts. It's fun to experiment.

 

[mqqn]

Hi Josh -

I suppose any butter pickle recipe will be similar, but I only have "dippin'" experience with Tom's lol

best regards -

mqqn

 

[rpttrsn]

Here is one I used mustard on and applied with bubble wrap. Let sit for 10 minutes and then cleaned.

 

[Josh Mason]

Awesome looking, guys! I put my blade in some white vinegar for about a half an hour and it darkened things up and gave a cooler effect.

 

[C.S. Graves]

After the movie, the blade looked like pure rust. The mustard was dry, and everything was orange and gross. I washed it of with a sponge loaded with Dawn dishwashing liquid, and here's what I got!

Before cleanup, it's easy to panic a little when you first see that gunky mess on your blade! As you say though, it turned out nice.

I did this one by applying lines of mustard, letting 'em dry, then cleaning the blade and adding new lines in-between where the previous ones were:

 

[Pete84]

Here is one I used mustard on and applied with bubble wrap. Let sit for 10 minutes and then cleaned.

+1 on the mustard & bubble wrap combo. I've had very good luck with that. I have even gone a step further and then soaked for an hour in warm vinegar to darken up the areas not hit by the mustard. I really enjoy the rustic look on carbon steel, particularly on field knives and kitchen cutlery.