Thanks, everyone. Sorry for the delayed response. I got a little internet burnt out for the past few days.
Here is a copy and paste of what I posted in
this thread...
Here is my finishing process for the "forced aged" look.
I owe a lot of this to Shawn Hatcher for always posting tips and tricks on achieving a finish like this. I religiously followed his posts and pieced together his process while experimenting and finding out what worked best for me.
Tools and supplies needed:
- Harbor Freight 18lb. vibratory tumbler
- Ceramic media from McMaster Carr
~ Coarse, Triangular 22 degree, 7/8"x7/16" #4918A918 (10lb.)
~ Coarse, V-Cylinder, 7/16"x7/16" #4918A911 (10lb.)
- Silicone Carbide grit (46/70)
- Tumbling soap
- Muriatic Acid
- Birchwood Casey Super Blue (Liquid Gun Blue)
- Bleach
- Penetrating Oil
- Steel Wool
The Process:
- Sand / grind the flats and bevel to at least 400 grit
- Wash knife with a degrease type soap
- Tumble for around 25 minutes
- Wash / clean
- Place in muriatic acid for 10 to 40 minutes (temperature greatly changes the time needed to be submerged)
- Spray with Windex and rinse
- Tumble for 15 minutes
- Wash with warm water and dry
- Apply Gun Blue with a dauber
- Immediately lightly scrub with steel wool
- Let sit for 30 seconds
- Rinse with warm water
- Submerge in bleach for 1 minute to 4 minutes
- Rinse
- Spray blade with penetrating oil and scrub with steel wool (remove all of the rust)
- Wash with soap
- Tumble for around 15 minutes
*Repeat all steps except for the muriatic acid until the desired finish is achieved.
I am still experimenting but have gotten pretty good results with this process so far.
The way I got the pattern is by dipping a dauber in the gun blue and running it over the spine, allowing it to drip down the bevels. I did a few aging cycles first, then on the last one I applied the gun blue, rubbed it in lightly with steel wool, then ran the dauber along the spine a few times. Let sit for a minute, washed, then put in the bleach. Very happy with the turn out.