Most of us all know that a patina on a carbon steel blade can help to protect against serious rust problems, it won't prevent it but will help slow it down. There are a number of different things we can use to achieve this most of them are acid based, one of the easiest ones to use is vinegar..
here is a new mora blade in carbon steel ( this one is the discontinued Mora 521, the big brother of the 510)
and here is another blade after a 24 hour vinegar etch
and here are the 2 blades side by side,
you can see the graphite colour achieved by the forced patina which produces that lovely satin finish, I really like this and it has a useful purpose too!
you can see the graphite colour achieved by the forced patina which produces that lovely satin finish, I really like this and it has a useful purpose too!
(by the way, I've modified the etched knife by removing the guard and dropping the point on the blade)
Nice work Phil. What type vinegar did you use? Apple cider or something else? Whats your opinion on boiling the vinegar to speed up the process?
ReplyDeleteHey Donal, just bog standard brown vinegar. I've read that boiling helps speed up the process but to be honest if you put the blade in the vinegar before you go to bed it will be done when you wake up, I don't really see the point in boiling it when just leaving it overnight works just as easily.
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