Forced Patina on a Twistmaster

[jahwarrior]

here's my Twistmaster, made of the mysterious Carbon V steel. i started by using it as a steak knife when i went out to eat, and for food prep at home. i cleaned a rabbit with it, some fish, andcut myself on it once. that started to form a pattern, but only on the belly, so i decided to use apple cider vinegar for the rest of the blade. i boiled some, poured it in a glass, then immersed the knife. once it started sizzling and foaming, i took it out, washed with Dawn soap, then let it sit in a glass of warm Coke for an hour. i washed it again, rubbed it Hoppes, washed one more time, then applied mineral oil.







my next patina projects will be my Trailhawk, Mini Gurkha, and my Benchmade Morpho 51. i aready started the balisong, but the vinegar isn't working too well. i'm not sure if D2 has a higher chromium content than other tool steels. there's a light patina, but the same treatment managed to make the Twistmaster look parkerized.

 

[Piraticalbob]

D2, with 11-13% chromium content, is usually considered a stain-resistant, but not stainless, steel (by contrast, 440C usually has a chromium content of 16-18%).

 

[cpirtle]

Nice looking finish. It's probably still going to get darker along the cutting edge but it should look a lot more even.

In common terms D2 is about as close to stainless as you can get without being stainless. People tend to think Stainless and non-stainless are black and white, it's really not. Keep in mind most knife steel was not developed for making knives, so in many cases the level of "stainlessness" (yes, i like to make up words) never came into play while the metalurgists were designing the steel, D2 is one of those animals.

 

[jahwarrior]

i see. so, i should stop wasting my time with the D2 blade then? i was wondering why it was taking so long.

 

[cpirtle]

Yep - I have a few custom Doziers in D2 and my workhorse folder has been in my pocket the better part of 3 years, has been used boating, fishing hunting and you name it and it looks as good as the day I got it. D2 can rust but it would need to be pretty deliberate.

 

[PRM]

I've had good results using Birchwood Casey Cold Blue on carbon blades. After getting a dark finish, buff it with .000 steel wool until you get the shade you desire.