Vinegar tiger stripe patina on knifes

[Sidmand]

Continuing with my vinegar theme 

Here are a couple of knives I have put a nice patina on with a strong mustard.  The stuff I use is a chunky horseradish/grainy mustard that is pretty thick.  I slather it good on the blade, then take a Q-Tip and wipe lines through the mustard.  Note that the darker lines occur on the places where I wipe the mustard OFF; I assume due to more air contact.  I leave the stuff on for about 30 minutes, then wipe it off, clean the blade good, then reapply to get more stripes.  Note that this only works on high-carbon steel, it will not work on a stainless blade.

First pick is of a custom bowie I got in a trade on another site - great knife.  The other is a nice Western knife I traded for some arrows, it was also great and I wished I still had it now.

[BOWMAN53]

thats awesome

[Danzn Bar]

That purdy  .... Have you done a built a long?, if not you need to..
Really like the looks
DBar

[turtle]

Wow! I realy like that. Wonder how well it would work on a muzzle loader barrel? I have a barrel on a cva hawkens thats in the white that i think that would look good on.

[Sidmand]

Sorry, was a busy weekend and hard to get online.  Thanks for the comments.

Turtle, if the barrel is a high carbon steel and hasn't already been blued, I don't see why it wouldn't work.  Another technique I have used is to saturate some paper towels with a high vinegar solution (or mustard, I really like mustard) and then wrap a knife blade, you might have better success on a rifle barrel that way, but it would be hard to get a striped pattern.  Maybe just some strips soaked in mustard and then wrapped?  If you don't like it, you can take some steel wool and buff it out.  If you try that, post some pics and let us see how it goes.

[bowtarist]

So I tried this last night. The blade was heat treated so it had a blue sheen to it already. Seemed to me that the mustard took the "tarnish" off and cleaned it rather than "etching" it. Does the mustard put color on the blade or take it off? I know that taco bell mild sauce is one of the best tarnish removers around.

[Aaron H]

I know that taco bell mild sauce is one of the best tarnish removers around.

Really? 

[bowtarist]

I know that taco bell mild sauce is one of the best tarnish removers around.

Really? 

Yup, but it's got to be the mild sauce. give it a try, it will clean a penny up in no time.

[Aaron H]

Crazy, makes me glad I get their fire sauce whenever I choose to eat their "Mexican" food.

[bowtarist]

Crazy, makes me glad I get their fire sauce whenever I choose to eat their "Mexican" food.

Next time pick up a pack of the mild and see if I'm still right. It's been awhile since I've eaten there. If I get there first, I'll do the same. dp

[Sidmand]

Does the mustard put color on the blade or take it off?

I think it does both really, but I'm not sure on the science.  I am pretty sure that it's the vinegar in the mustard that causes a reaction on high carbon steel which causes it to start to rust or otherwise react.  But, since vinegar is a weak acid, it could clean or otherwise change the color of any steel that already had a patina on it.  It will not etch or otherwise scar the blade unless you leave it on the for a long time, it just alters the color on the surface, you can sand or otherwise remove the patina you get with this method.

I need to redo the blade on my bowie, I will post some pics and a quick walk through when I do.  I put the knife into a sheath I made and vinegar blacked, and apparently it was still damp on the inside of the sheath.  That totally screwed up the finish on the blade and actually pitted it in a couple of places, but the knife was in there for over 24 hours before I checked it.  That's what I get for being impatient.  I had to take the sheath apart, dry it, treat the inside of it with beeswax and olive oil, and then sew it back up.  Now I got to redo the knife.

[Pappy]

Very nice,beautiful work. We use vinegar sometimes but the last few I done I used Coke,worked fast and about the same.
 Pappy

[swamp yeti]

That is a beautiful knife like that patina too.

[longbow man]

       Stripes look cool. Try ferric chloride next time(Radio Shack sells it for circuit board work). This really brings out the hamon on a differentially heat treated high carbon blade. Again don't leave it in too long.