I went out on a limb with Sriracha sauce and Birchwood Casey Perma Blue. We'll see how well it holds up.
I'm playing with slowly forcing a patina on a Sabatier carbon chefs knife. I like what you did there. The dotted patina is pretty sweet.
My father in-law gave me this old Mannlicher-Berthier/Lebel bayonet this weekend. Said his uncle gave it to him as a kid. Brought it home as a war trophy after WWII. Sadly it was stored in humid conditions and forgotten about for decades until they were moving. Been a slow process of sanding the rust off and wiping in down with white vinegar. The lug mechanism is seized up.
Had anyone tried doing a patina/etch on a 1095 blade with ferric chloride? Does it have an effect on rust prevention?
@Victor Hagström I keep a bottle of ferric chloride (aka PCB etching solution) in my garage. I've etched the logos of every ESEE I've ever owned with that stuff (the coated ones not the black oxide). In terms of rust prevention I'd say no. I've had several that I etched that ended up rusting all in the logos. It's been a deep red rust too, not a light surface rust brown color. I was kind of thinking that it would offer a bit of protection. But that hasn't been the case for me.
I actually just did that on my Junglas-II. After etching the logos I gun blued them with Birchwood Casey. It darkened them considerably. Here's a few pics after etching, gun blue, and stripping. Afterwards I sanded (400 grit), did a Sriracha sauce pattern patina, and then gun blued the whole thing. I don't really look to gun blue to provide a solid layer of rust protection. But I wanted the perks of a 90° spine and I love a little project. The finished product is a few posts up. I threw in a close up of the logo below after everything was done.
I understand, That's a shame. It would be a great solution to make the blade darker again and gain some protection against rust in the process.
Trying a mustard patina on my RAT7. Going heavy with it to see how it turns out. How long do you think i should leave it on there before doing the other side?
Looks like it will leave a cool pattern. I've always done 30 minute increments. No particular reason for that number.
That honestly didn't do anything in an hour so I wiped most of it off and then dabbed just a little back on. I left that an hour and I'm pretty happy with it. Gotta oil it and touch up the edge in a bit. I'm looking at some TKC scales for it now.
And here's the result: Not intricate or anything fancy but I like it better than the uncoated blade. Now to shop for scales... I gave it a coating of Frog Lube and heated it to to set it into the metal then put the factory scales back on for now.
I’m always impressed with people to get these really cool looking Patinaz I’ve heard some say mustard splattered boiling vinegar wrapping a paper towel or something else with a pattern soaked in vinegar around the blade. One of the coolest I’ve seen was done by a guy who swore by boiled eggs apparently hard boiled eggs in a Ziploc bag give off enough sulfur to do kind of a fog patina but anytime I’ve ever tried to force a patina it basically just looks dark and uncared for like my knives I really use So anymore I just beat the hell out of them and don’t rely on my lack of artistic ability ha ha
Chlorine pool shock pucks , 10 or so, couple cups salt , plus Water . Boil and drip a clean (no oils - clean blade with acetone) blade into the solution and soak for 15. Wipe off rust , Re-dip for darker patina. Wash clean , oil blade
I’ve always had good results with just vinegar, white or acv at room temp for a few hours gives a nice dull non reflective grey that takes markings from use but remains dull. @Strigidae clued me on heating the vinegar to get a darker result which I enhance with grass overlay. the initial just vinegar will still give a dull effect that lasts and gets darker with time. The further hot vinegar with overlay will get you a “don’t lay it down cause it will be hard to find again “ result that keeps getting darker the more it’s used.