best ways to age metal?

[st_lgarret01]

so i'm curious about how to "age" metal (steel, brass). I've been thinking about aging a pistol and my bowie knife.
what sort of techniques do you guys use to age your guns? I'm talking about that certain look where it still has about 60-80% of the blueing left on it, and sort of that "used but not abused" look to a knife blade.

your amigo,
Lane-o Bueno

 

[crockett]

I started with bleach but it is too strong and eats up too much metal. The corrosion doesn't look right, it is a worm wood pattern whereas if you look at an old blade there is more of a fine, evenly spaced pitting. Vinegar seems to work pretty good. I have read on a knife making forum that gasoline is used but I have no idea how that works. Some of the rust browning solutions will work a bit if left on a long time.
Probably put your wet knife in a leather sheath and just do it "the original way"

 

[mazo kid]

What Crockett said. Also, mustard has been used. Just using your knife to cut apples, oranges, etc with give it a patina too.

 

[Robby]

Hondo, Time and use. :wink:
Robby

 

[pichou]

What Crockett said. Also, mustard has been used. Just using your knife to cut apples, oranges, etc with give it a patina too.

Raw meat does a good job. Probably potato too?

Mustard is a paste form of vinegar. :grin:

 

[59sharps]

Go to you local chicken farmer. burry it in the coop for a few mo. that will help. Acid Soder flux rap w/ elect. tape heat it let it cool pull the tape off.

 

[smokehouseman]

I had great luck by putting a knife in a bag of sliced onions and leaving it for a couple of days.

 

[romeoh]

For the knife blade - in case it isn´t stainless :wink: : Vinegar will do the job.
Should work for the gun-stuff too. But I let my guns age by using and only play around with vinegar on blades...

 

[Nifeman]

Hondo, you can use mustard, but, you ave to "blop" it on (thick and thin areas). After it dries to a black goo, rinse it off and repeat. This will give it a high-low sort of pattern. Buff it out with 0000 steel wool and oil it with mineral oil. This I know will work with carbon steel blades ( which is all I make)...Bud

Forged Dag w/ mustard treatment

 

[st_lgarret01]

thanks Nife, thats the exact kind of patina i was thinking about :hatsoff:
my friend had used bleach on his blade and it didn't come out looking very good. I'd heard that heated bleach works better. but it just sorta "sploched" the blade and didn't look aged at all.
is there a way to clean that stuff off to start over?

 

[Goldhunter]

What Crockett said. Also, mustard has been used. Just using your knife to cut apples, oranges, etc with give it a patina too.

Raw meat does a good job. Probably potato too?

Mustard is a paste form of vinegar. :grin:

Cutting tomatoes did one heck of a job on one of my blades. I just cut them and then let the knife sit overnight with the juice on the blade.

 

[st_lgarret01]

also, I was going to sharpen that blade of mine with the honing compund and strop, because I want it sharp(I mean gillete blade sharp!)
would you suggest honing the blade before I age it or does it realy not make a difference?

 

[Capt. Fred]

I aged this blade using bleach and naval jelly. This one in particular I did several (6 or 8) light coats of each to get it this grey but you can really control the effect to any level you want. If you decide to use bleach then be sure to dab it on and not wipe it on. If you wipe it on, the spots and pits will line up in streaks and not look right. I sharpen after I age it.

 

[LRB]

Nice wire work capt. Very nice!

 

[Capt. Fred]

Thank you kindly!

 

[paulvallandigham]

Age the blade first. The acids will eat into the thin metal at the edge of a finely sharpened blade. The result will be to dull the fine edge you worked so hard to put on the blade.

You will need either a very powerful magnifying lens, or microscope to see this damage, but its there. I have only seen pictures of it, but I can feel it in my knife in "before and after" testing. Sometimes the erosion of the edge is so bad, that the edge catches "Fuzz" on an edge that came out clean before the acid treatments.

 

[st_lgarret01]

nicely done Cap!

 

[Troy Allen Christianson]

It is the vinegar in mustard that does the etching of your blade. A gentleman on another website suggested using a rag soaked in vinegar to age a C&B revolver. He wraps it loosely around the gun and lets it set for a few hours. It removes only the bluing on the high spots giving it that worn look. This is his method of aging a revolver. I would experiment with some practice peices before I did a gun that you do not want damaged with an unknown process. Good luck.

 

[Chilidog]

Mighty fine there Capn'. Mighty fine...


:thumbsup: