What Does Patina Look Like

I read a lot about patina building on a blade that will help it prevent rust, but I dont see a lot of pictures of what it looks like, specially in contrast to a clad blade where only the exposed carbon area will patina. I imagine most all you guys have blades with built up patina, mind sharing some pictures of them ?

 

Well, you've got your naturally occuring patinas:








Then you have your forced patinas (these were done with mustard):

 

Whoa that first and last one aee crazy looking... that effect would look great on a handle as a ring or two,

No wonder people like to cut the mustard

 

All natural......

 

natural blue patina


mustard forced patinas

 

like this

 

So on my clad knives, this will only show up on the core steel just above the edge,... if so I think the Yuki will look kind of amazing once it happens. for the mustard trick (Just out of my own curiosity), do you just smear down some good old french's yeller goo and leave it for a bit and wash off ?

 

5-30 minutes depending on how dark you want it. Multiple coats can help. You can daub it on, you can use bubble wrap, you can use a paper towel... Lots o variations that a google search can probably show you different patterns.

Also it depends on what the cladding is. If it is stainless it will react little. If it is iron cladding you will get different results.

IMO natural patinas look better but that can depend on what you are cutting.

Be careful. Patina is a dirty word to some

 

Buy a couple of Old Hickory knives off amazon or wherever. First practice your knife edge building with them (I won't say honing, they need more than that), and then play with them to experiment with patina. They are cheap, but they can hone up quite well when you put some effort in.

I have one I keep in the kitchen of my share house, and it cuts just fine. But my nice knives stay hidden away so no one is tempted to use them to open packets, or cut oysters in half, and then throw them into the dishwasher.

 

done by my 15 year old daughter

 

another one on a Sugimoto carbon, well used

 

and on a kramer

 

I prefer the natural patina, blue is my favorite.

 

Noticed we don't have an official "show your patina" here yet. Thought about staying one but then thought that maybe This thread could be brought back as such.
So here we go:

 

And: