vinegar forced patina

D

Dylan D.

Joined
Dec 23, 2013
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64
so I just tried using distilled white vinegar to force a patina on my 7 and it didn't work out to well. I submerged it for around an hour, and when it was a nice shade of gray I took it out. As I cleaned it off with a soapy sponge and warm water, the gray color completely went away. It now sits looking just the same as it did before I started. Any idea as to why this may have happened? I plan on trying again tomorrow, but I don't know what to do different.
 
If you like a random pattern then try soaking a few paper towels in vinegar, loosely twist them up and lightly wrap them around the blade in a spiral fashion.

Let that sit for about thirty minutes, take it off and wrap it in the other direction for another 30 min.

While that is sitting, blot and smear some drops on the tang and pommel and let that sit as well.

When you remove the towel, let it sit for another 15 minutes or until dry... I feel this lets it etch a little deeper.

I use plain white vinegar right out of the bottle.

When you clean it up it will look something like this:


 
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I don't think white vinegar is going to give you the result you're looking for.

White vinegar isn't that acidic, has a PH of around 2. Apple cider vinegar is 4.5 - 5. I'm assuming that has some sort of impact.

White vinegar can be used as a cleaner, so maybe try something with a higher acidity (lower ph) or something with it's own color, like the mustard or apple cider vinegar people use all the time. Maybe that has some kind of bearing on how it turns out too?
 
Apparently white vinegar is just fine. I stand corrected.

Those look fantastic, FTR.
 
I have never tried apple cider vinegar. If it has twice the acid it should work twice as well, or at least twice as fast. We do things nice because we do things twice.

EDIT:
Wait a minute?? If white vinegar has a lower PH, wouldn't it have more acid than apple?
 
Heat it up a little, and after taking out your knife, expose it to air some before washing it off. It's not just the acids but exposure to oxygen (oxidation) that makes patina. Even a mustard or hot sauce patina shows only at the edges of where you apply it. A vinegar soak will yield a pretty uniform shade at best. I almost always wash mine off with baking soda and water - more effective at neutralizing acid.
 
thanks for the help. I believe ill grab some apple cider vinegar for tomorrow's attempt.
 
So today didn't go well... at all. I used hot apple cider vinegar and soaked it until it had a nice dark color. At that point I removed it and immediately rinsed it off (completely forgetting about letting it sit out to dry). So after that waste of time, I soaked it again until it had a real dark color. after I removed it, I allowed it to sit outside for about 20 or 30 minutes. Took it back to the sink, scrubbed it, and voila, no patina. Im pretty much fed up with vinegar patinas at this point, but I don't know how else to get a nice even shade of gray that I like. There's no telling how much I have aged this blade in the past 2 days, lol.
 
How are you scrubbing it? Definitely don't use anything abrasive....patinas don't go very deep in the first place. Maybe just a rinse with water and a dry towel? IDK. Always done mine patterned, with mustard or ketchup or such...or let it happen au naturel.
 
yea I was using the rough side of a kitchen sponge, similar to a scotch brite pad. I guess that was the problem. I'll probably do it again tomorrow, lol im impatient. Ill try just towel drying it. Thanks.
 
You must be scrubbing it off. I have never had hot apple cider vinegar fail to give a nice patina on carbon steel. You don't need to rinse it off for a couple of hours. Or a couple of days for that matter.
 


The first time I tried to out a patina on, I forgot to degrease. Using a good degreaser or rubbing alcohol a few times before applying the patina, and not touching with your skin could be important.
I have always been told that once you think you have degreased enough, do it again.


What I did was simmer white vinigar with a few smashed oranges for maybe 30 minutes. I didn't want to bring it to a boil because I didn't want to effect the heat treat(even though I am sure I wouldn't)

I let the vinegar and oranges simmer for white awhile before putting the blade in in hopes that water would evaporate, and the acidity level of the solution would rise. Idk if that did anything.

The knife is a tops msk, 1095
 
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I used the vinegar approach a few times with success. Granted, it was a much smaller blade but it worked well. I heated up the vinegar in the microwave, then placed the knife in the jar. Once bubbles formed, I removed the knife from the solution, swirled it around and placed back into the jar. This was over the coarse of a day. I never scrubbed afterward, only rinsed. The finish is not durable but its what I was looking for.

 
White vinegar, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice.... they all work.

It's a fairly simple chemical reaction. The cleaner the steel is, the better any patina or cold-bluing operation will work (you don't want any grease or oil - including fingerprints - on the surface of the steel... a good scrub with hot dish-soap and water will help a lot, followed by a thorough rinse in isopropyl alcohol.)

Heat is a catalyst to any chemical reaction like this; bring the vinegar close to boiling temp and it will react with the steel more quickly. (Do that outside if there are other humans in your house who may not be amused by the entire residence reeking of hot iron and pickles.) We're talking temps of around 210F max... that's not going to affect the HT of the blade.

Be patient. An hour isn't going to do a whole lot. Six or eight hours' soak will be much more effective. Repeating the process several times will give the deepest, darkest color.
 
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