how do you apply a patina?

Reading the tread, it said that it was a horse radish patina. What I would do is get a bottle of ground horse radish at the grocery and pack the blade in it until I got the patina that I desired. Because the horse radish is acid, I would then put it in a baking soda solution or spray it down with an amonia based cleaner to stop the action, dry it off and maybe hit with a little metal polish, but not a metal cleaner.

Doug Lester
 
Since your using D2, and it falls right on the borderline of being "stainless", it's gona take more time and effort to achieve a patina like that than it did on the blade in the thread you mentioned (that blade is 1095). Doug's suggestion is a good one, but I suspect where the 1095 didn't take long, it's gona be a a couple of days or more to achieve the same thing on D2.
 
Horseradish was used in the post you referred to so if that is the look you want use that method.
Ed is right, it will take longer to get the patina on the D2. I pack the horseradish around the blade real good then wrap in saran wrap to keep it moist, checking it often until I get the patina I want.

There are other methods to get a patina. One is mustard. By dabbing it on you get a blotchy patina and by putting a smooth coat on the blade you get a smoother patina. Soaking the blade in vinegar will give you a patina too. I use all three methods on many of my knives.

Larry
 
okay i think ill go with packing it in horseradish for a few days, but is there anything i need to do prior to packing it in the horseradish?
 
I hand sand to 600 grit then clean the blade real good making sure there is no oily residue left on it. Then I do the patina.
It works just going to 400 grit too. Just a matter of preference.
Larry
 
im pretty sure you would do the patina before putting on the handle scales
 
Do you do the patina before you put the handle scales on or after?

UncleBilly

I have done it both ways. If I do the patina after I put the handle scales on I cover the scales with tape. Doing it either way you still have the exposed part of the tang to consider. If you do the patina before installing the handle you will grind the patina off the tang when shaping the handle. What I do is tape off the scales, carefully put whatever I am using to get the patina, on the tang, trying not to get it on the scales. After I get the patina I want I clean off the tang, remove the tape, clean and polish the handle.

Others may have a better way. This is the way I learned to do this. I hope it helps you.

Larry
 
Thanks for the input. i was concerned about the patina being under the scales. i think i will try putting the scales on first and doing all my shaping, then add the patina.

UncleBilly
 
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