# Patina Dilemma



## Lefty (May 25, 2011)

My wonderful, masculine and talented Misono Swede has been taking a backseat, lately to my other knives. I haven't used it too much in about 2 weeks, because I just lazerized my 210 gyuto and I've fallen in love with another carbon beauty (thanks Rick).
I took it out this morning and noticed some spots of the red cancer...rust!
I had enough time to take some wet/dry to it and get rid of the problem, and rub it down with mineral oil. I placed it back in its saya and while I was out for my pre-work run I thought. I can't let this happen... I need to force a patina.
So, what do you think? Should I???


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## JohnnyChance (May 25, 2011)

Sounds more like an excuse to get a nice piece of red meat, cook it for dinner (rare to mid rare of course), and slice it up. That's what I do every time I need to kick-start a nice patina. I have done the forced before with a mustard/vin solution, and it came out okay. Just prefer the looks of a natural one.


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## Lefty (May 26, 2011)

Thanks for talking me through this! I slept on it, and after seein your response, I agree! 
The mineral oil will hold it over until the weekend, then it's rare roast, in the sunny weather (I hope) time!


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## SpikeC (May 26, 2011)

Chicken works too!


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## Jim (May 26, 2011)

A patina tip, after you use the knife, wash and dry it ,wait for a while to oil it. gives the patinsa time to form.


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## Mattias504 (May 26, 2011)

force a patina with cow blood. Makes it blue and awesome.


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## deanb (May 26, 2011)

Mattias504 said:


> force a patina with cow blood. Makes it blue and awesome.


 
Now THAT is a great idea! I have a 10" Kramer Zwilling on the way (supposed to be here on June 1st). I'm going to give that a try. I'll post before and after pics.


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## Lefty (May 26, 2011)

I am going to force a blood patina. Worst case scenario, I scrub it off and build up a natural one again. 
I suggested the blood thing to another guy at FF and some seemed to think it would equal rust. I'll give it a try this weekend and let you guys know!


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## Booink (May 26, 2011)

Where can you buy a bucket of blood for this? :scratchhead:


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## Lefty (May 26, 2011)

Asian grocers often have it for stews and soups, all collected that day. If you call ahead to a butcher that gets non-cryovac'd sides you can get it too.


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## Mattias504 (May 26, 2011)

Well, you don't have to buy a pint of blood and get all crazy with it. Just get some steak of some kind. Cook it for dinner and just dont wipe it off after you cut up your delicious medium rare steak for fajitas. I did that with my kikuichi suji that I got years and years ago. Never had any rust or reactivity problems with it in 4 years of use.


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## Dave5440 (May 26, 2011)

At the risk of proving i'm an idiot, what excactly is "lazerizing" a blade
Thanks
Dave


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## Lefty (May 26, 2011)

Where's the fun in that? 
We're supposed to have a nice warm Saturday, so I'll be grilling after making my custom BBQ station (weather permitting).
I'm leaning towards baking soda scrub, acetone, soap and water, dry, blood bath. Haha


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## Lefty (May 26, 2011)

For mine, it was just nice soft shoulders, really acute bevels and a slight microbevel for durability. 
For many knives, you'd have to thin it and then basically do what I did, except for the microbevel part. That's up o you and whether or not you value durability.


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## UglyJoe (May 26, 2011)

Mattias504 said:


> Well, you don't have to buy a pint of blood and get all crazy with it. Just get some steak of some kind. Cook it for dinner and just dont wipe it off after you cut up your delicious medium rare steak for fajitas. I did that with my kikuichi suji that I got years and years ago. Never had any rust or reactivity problems with it in 4 years of use.


 
Like I said over at FF, this and getting a pint of blood for patina purposes aren't the same thing. The "blood" you get from a steak isn't blood, it's protein saturated water, and probably react differently with the steel than real blood.


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## Mattias504 (May 26, 2011)

Well, then get yourself some protein saturated water and let it sit on your knife. It should form a blue patina relatively quickly.


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## Dave5440 (May 26, 2011)

Oh thats what it means, I did that to mine without knowing it , single bevel though


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## slowtyper (May 27, 2011)

Do you soak it in blood or wrap the blade in a blood soaked papertowel?


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## UglyJoe (May 27, 2011)

Well, I guess it depends on if you want to control the pattern or not. Personally, I cut rare steak and sit the knife to the side for about five minutes. Come back and wipe up and you should have a pretty cool blue thing going on all ready. Let that sit out in the air for a while, then clean the blade with soapy water and go on about your business.


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## Booink (May 27, 2011)

This makes me wonder what raw eggs will do to a knife


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## Dave Martell (May 27, 2011)

There sure is some crazy people here. :razz:


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## stevenStefano (May 27, 2011)

I've tried just straight blood on a carbon knife a couple of times and I wan't that impressed. To be fair it was blood from kidneys so maybe that played a part. I applied about 5 or 6 layers with a pastry brush and it left the knife with a slight blue colour, but as soon as I cut anything with it, it went away and formed the more normal brown/bronze colour


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## Lefty (May 27, 2011)

This is going to sound nuts, but blood with creatin-alkali powder mixed in would likely do a great job...hmmm


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## EdipisReks (May 27, 2011)

i find a layer of ketchup followed by a layer of mustard (clean and dry between applications) gives a pretty good and reasonably pretty patina, quite quickly.


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## Lefty (May 27, 2011)

What colour does the ketchup and mustard combo turn the steel?


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## Lefty (May 27, 2011)

Or rather, what colour patina does it create?


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## EdipisReks (May 27, 2011)

dark blueish-purpley, with some amber streaks, usually. it would depend on the steel, of course, and how long the exposure and how often you apply it, but that's my experience on a few different knives.


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## Lefty (May 27, 2011)

Sounds awesome! Less gruesome too....


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## EdipisReks (May 27, 2011)

check out the pics of my Konosuke in the patina thread. that was several applications of mustard, but the ketchup seems to "prime" the steel somehow and makes it take the mustard patina more quickly and evenly.


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## Lefty (May 27, 2011)

Will do! Thanks man!


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## EdipisReks (May 27, 2011)

no prob.


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## Seb (May 27, 2011)

I like to start my blue patina by cutting some meat cooked medium-rare and then I leave the knife in the block for about a week with no mineral oil coating so that the patina has a chance to set in.


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## James (May 28, 2011)

has anyone tried collecting meat juices/blood and doing the bubble wrap trick? I'm curious to see what that looks like


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## Lefty (May 28, 2011)

I just took a pic of the cleaned up area, after my first round on a Jnat. 
You can see where the rust spots were cleaned up. I can't wait to make it all bluey-purple!







As you can see, rust sucks! Now I NEED that patina to cover it up!


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## stevenStefano (May 28, 2011)

I tried ketchup on a knife earlier and it actually made a little difference to the patina that had already sorta been established. I'd say it's probably because there's vinegar in it, went a dark gray colour. I've tried literally about 20 coats of mustard on the knife, yet it still reacts with onions a little


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## Lefty (May 28, 2011)

Here's my update. I went rare steak, cut into strips, let it sit for about 10 mins. I then followed it up with HOT water, dried it, put two coats of ketchup on each side, dabbed with a paper towel and wiped it down and let it sit for a while with mineral oil. Here's a picture of the end result (after another touch up on the Jnat), along with the inspiration. 






What a fun day!
Thanks for the ketchup tip, EdipisReks. Much prettier than some other types of patinas!


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## Cnimativ (May 28, 2011)

Lefty that's some really beautiful patina...


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## Pensacola Tiger (May 28, 2011)

Nice job, very nice job!


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## shankster (May 28, 2011)

ahhh ketchup...is there anything it can't do? 
looks amazing,nice work!:thumbsup:


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## EdipisReks (May 28, 2011)

looks pretty good.


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