Hey folks, I have a newer pair of knives with A2 blades. They're uncoated and I have been considering doing a forced patina on them. Has anyone on here had any luck, or have any advice such as do's or don't's or have a particular method that has worked out well for them? Thanks for your time in advance.
Ive done boiling hot distilled vinegar on one before. Turned it black. Problem is that everything you cut leaves a black smear on until it gets stable.
Mustard patina Mustard patina Hot apple cider vinegar All patinas will release black for a bit, but will stop after a little use.
Damn SEMO, that's a classy lookin' lineup. @mtngoat did you have the scales in the vinegar too? Mine are micarta as well but they're not removable. I wonder if I'll end up smelling like a douche bag (literally) after using them if I do a full soak. Not the biggest problem in the world but just something that crossed my mind.
If your scales aren't removable, you can just wrap your blade in paper towels soaked in vinegar. Or using the mustard technique, just bloch mustard on the blade. OR, using the grapefruit technique, stab your blade into a grapefruit. How long you leave the blade in contact will affect how dark it turns out with all methods.
Thanks IW. I plan on starting early Saturday morning that way I can resoak if they're not as dark as I like. I'll likely wrap the handles as you mentioned and do mustard blots on the blades. I'll post pics and details. It's that Forest Trail I had posted a while back. I just saw today where you had replied to me on that thread. Sorry. You mentioned that the handles looked comfy. They definitely are. I don't have any prior experience with A2 but I think it's gonna be my new main blade. Take care fellas and thank you all for taking the time to reply.
Doesn't matter what temperature it is, it always burns No problem bud, thanks for letting me know. One of these days I'm gonna bite the bullet and pick one up. Drop point scandi grind for me!
Alright guys, I asked and you were kind enough to answer so here's what I've been up to. I wanted to force a patina on a couple of L. T. Wrights, a Forest Trail and a Patriot. Both are A2 steel, which I've never owned. I was curious as to how they would patina, supposedly being more corrosion resistant than a lot of other carbon steels. This may be a little pic heavy. After a scrub down with acetone I ended up going with grapefruit and then a vinegar soak to fill in the "bald spots". I went a little too long with the vinegar soak that I would have liked because I masked the pattern left by the grapefruit, which I thought was cool looking. I left the blades stuck down in the grapefruit for 5 hours, peeking about every hour. After that I wrapped them in paper towel, doused them with an apple cider vinegar, squeezed the excess out to form the paper towels to the knives, and let them sit for 2 hours. I slit a hole in the paper towel after an hour to check the finish. After a light stropping to bring the edge back and a Tuf-cloth bath I was done. Overall I'm happy with how they turned out. The paper towel left a net-like pattern on the larger blade. Both knives ended up with a sort of muted, charcoal gray color. FWIW, my scales did seem a bit "thirsty" afterwards, soaking up the Tuff Glide. Maybe the vinegar wrap was a bit harsh on the polished finish. Anyhow, these are gonna be users so it's not a concern to me. @Marty W, on a separate note, I'm glad to see that your ZT sold. It took every ounce of self restraint that I had to keep from scooping it up. Those scales were sick. Six-three does some top shelf work and I commit emotional adultery on my 566 everytime I see a 562. Thanks again everyone for being here!
