Vinegar Etch Old Hickory

[Joel]

Another use for vingegar that I learned from reading Bob Engnath's last catalog, which I still keep as a reference, is to soak 154CM/ATS-34 overnight in vinegar before grinding off all that tough,black scale. Comes off a lot easier. Speaking of using kitchen products, I use mustard to etch/age carbon steel for that antique look. Learned that trick at this forum a couple of years ago. For some reason, jalapeno mustard works best. Layer it heavily on the (carbon steel) blade and leave on for 20 minutes or so, depends on the steel. The steel should be nice and clean, obviously. A second coat can be applied if more "aging"is needed. Wash the stuff off with soap and water and wax. I've used both the mustard and "browning"solution together, the mustard is applied first, to create some interesting effects.

[Cliff Krug]

You can just stick a small blade in a potatoe,let it sit for an hour or so . This will give you a nice antique look.Cliff

[Dodd]

Originally Posted by hammerdownnow

Well, I guess everyone sees thu my trickery and knows it is the same knife. Second pic is after cleaning, re-patena and oiling.

You know, I had forgotten all about this thread, but it is now quite relevant.

I used my precious to cut cake at a child's 5th birthday party, outdoors in the winter.
When I got home, I noticed the little rash of rust dots on it.

I dissassembled my Bark River Knife and Tool Evolution One ("the precious"),
washed it with soap and water, rinced with water, unscuffed with steel wool,
removed things I don't even want to think about with acetone,
and finally used a dry new cloth to take off the acetone.

I then immersed the precious in some vinegar kept slightly warm over a space heater
(WAY over a space heater...no more than maybe 35 degrees C)
After about 15 minutes, the blade began to slightly grey.
Another hour, and the blade looked black.
I thought this might be a nice new look.

I remember now the reason for my doing all this was to get that nice black patina on your old Hickory knives above.

The black stuff came off with a touch.
I removed the precious from the bath and wiped it down.

The blade is now an astonishingly even patina of light 'french grey'
I was hoping some hematite might have formed on the blade.
Will it make it darker if I soak it again?

Perhaps in something else, like apple cider or malt vinegar?
Maybe some distilled tea (tannic acid)?

In the end I washed it with soap and water, water, acetone, and a clean cloth
then I sealed it in, as you mention above a mixture of pharmaceutical grade mineral oil and a beeswax candle I tried to 'dissolve' in the oil.
That didn't really work, so I scribbled on the precious with it, then applied the oil.

I don't have a before/after just yet, but I'll show you me with my precious:

[AwP]

The light grey is typical of vinager. If you want it darker try ferric chloride, I don't know if the tea or other vinagers will have the effect or not, never tried them.

[sleepy]

If you twist up paper towels and then wrap them around the blade and tie them on with a little wire or string firm but not to tight. Then pour vinegar on towels till soaked. Leave on overnight. This leaves a interesting pattern etched into the blade, very similar to pattern welding. I have only tried this on 1095.
I have soaked cru-wear in muratic acid for etch and rust protection on one of my knives. I immersed the blade in acid for 30 minutes at a time 5 times. Neutralise acid between each dip with baking soda and rinse with water dry and redip. After last dip and neutralisation, put in a pot of boiling water for 10 minutes with about 1/4 cup baking soda. Leaves a very durable dark charcoal grey finish on the blade after very light 2000 grit wet sand to smooth. I dont know how well this will work on other metals. Cru-wear is very resistant to fc and vinegar.

[hammerdownnow]

Dodd, just noticed your reply when Sleepy bumped this back up. Sounds like you have set up a good base for your patena. Time and touchups, where it gets rubbed off, will make it darken more. The wax seals it and prevents further darkening. Just keeping it clean and dry will let it futher patena naturally. Nice chopper.

[jimanddianaa]

Tried the vinegar etch and then added 2 coats of Birchwood Casey-looking pretty darn good right now.

[hammerdownnow]

That sounds like a good idea Jim. The etch should add some tooth for the Casey to stick to. Thanks for sharing that.

[Jan Dox]

As Sleepy said,

when wrapping the blade in paper towels you can get a "welded pattern" on your blade.
I did a blade years ago and a lot of people thought it was damascus.
You can even play with layers of paper build up on the side of the blade to create a welded look, as the etch is deeper along the torn edges of the paper layers.

soak the paper and wrap in kling film and let rest for a couple of hours.

I once had a blade (forged from a car spring) that was forgotten in a bath of vinegar for about a week, and the black layer was very hard and tough, so I let it on the blade.

Jan

[charlie Tee]

So i was wondering will it make a difference what kind of vinegar i use?. Cos my girlfriend is seriously into cooking and we have at least seven different kinds of vinegar in our cupboard.

Also the reason for the paper towel method working better is that it allows oxygen to get to the blade and deepen the etch. (i just thought the smilie was cool)

[hammerdownnow]

White vineger works fine, 5%. You can make it stronger by freezing some of the water out of it.

[EdgarFigaro]

Nice looking, those are the kind of kitchen knives my grandpa has =] Seem like a nice little set =]

His have a pretty good patina from use. Cool info on all the vinegar stuff too!

[Joel]

This is the etch I got using the version of Windex that also has vinegar. I've been using it for quite a while for polishing my blades and when I decided to cut and re-shape this Incolma machete to make a 12" bush/pack knife, I thought "what the heck". Wrapped the blade in soaked paper towels after grinding with a used 100 grit belt to take off whatever is on the blade as a preservative, and then wrapped that tightly in a plastic shopping bag. Waited 24 hours and ended up with this. I kinda like it.

[JediOkie]

Just an aside note on the eating of wax, carnuba is also the binding agent in Hot Tamales brand candies which means it is probably used in a lot of other candies as well.

and the machette/knife etching is nice, almost looks life damascus.

[ramm]

will bathing the blade into ferric chloride makes your blade poisonous (i.g if the knife then used for food preparation)