ageing a stainless steel knife blade?

[tnlonghunter]

I'm making a knife for a friend of mine, and going to be using a blade from a CVA Bowie Kit that I got in high school. It's very shiny (mirror shine in fact) and I'd like to find a way to make it look a little older. At least take of the sheen without making it look ugly. It'll have a Mule deer antler handle and just want it to look a little better. Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[ameling]

Stainless Steel is actually a misnomer. It can rust, it can stain, it just takes a whole lot longer! That's why they add all that chrome alloy into the steel.

One way to fairly quickly "age" steel is to use bleach - household clorox type bleach. Just wet the steel down with bleach. I use a q-tip to wipe it on. Then wet it again every 10 or 15 minutes - as it looks like it is drying off. Each time you wet it back down with bleach, your q-tip will start to pick up some "rusty" color - from the metal as it reacts with the bleach. When it gets stained/aged enough, wash it thoroughly with water and soap.

This is the "slow" method - so you can carefully work up to the "aging" you wish to achieve. Doing this for a couple hours will age/stain regular carbon steel to a good look without pitting/damaging the blade. With stainless steel it will take longer. Some people soak a paper towel in bleach and wrap the blade up in it. Then put it in a plastic bag to ... age. But check it often! It's pretty easy to go too far to that "pitted" level of aging.

This will help age your stainless steel blade. Just use patience and go slow.

The other way to take that "polish" off is to have the blade sand-blasted or bead blasted. You then end up with a dull matt type finish.

I personally don't like stainless steel for a knife blade - preferring a carbon steel blade. But that's a personal choice, and we all work with what we have.

Just my humble thoughts to share. Take them as such.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

 

[tnlonghunter]

Danke Schone Mike,
I'll give that a shot and see how it works.

 

[rich pierce]

You can also "seed" it with steel wool. Take steel wool, wash it out with soap, mush up the steel wool, get some mustard and mix the steel wool in, smear the mess on your stainless steel blade. Wrap in plastic wrap and leave overnight. Repeat as needed. The steel wool will begin to rust quickly and get the process going faster.

 

[Bruno Giordan]

vinegar and salt for a couple of days, then cleaning with steel wool.

i make seaxes and medieval daggers, I had the same problem a week ago to age a knightly battle mace.

if you want rust, you can also use horse piss, medieval method to rust pieces for blackening, very good for a cowboy era item ...