best way to reduce reactivity in carbon knives? especially soft iron cladding

what methods have the best results to make carbon less fussy?
i'm in search of the most optimal results.

i've tried vinegar etch, ferric chloride etch, hot chicken patina, and just natural use patina.
currently doing the scrubbing with baking soda and coarse salt paste routine at end of each shift and it seems to be working better than other methods.

got an idea from dave about polishing the blade prior to an etch in vinegar+ferric chloride mix, will try that next. any other success stories?

Mustard or mashed banana . . .

Are you talking about your tanakas? I have a friend that is just using it and letting a patina form naturally. It is working great for him too, it is so blue it looks like a light saber. However my experience with iron cladding was ... "interesting."

Patina is a wonderful solution if you can get a nice one. On my nakiri the iron cladding patinas with ugly orange one, there are some hint of blue but very deem. This does not look nice at all.
Any fix for this? I tried artificial patina using mustard, raw beef, chicken, apples, onions, etc and all were more or less same ugly color

Even the ugly orange stuff turns dark after a while. Just don't let it go to full rust. Nothing like processing a crate of pineapples to put some color on your blade. Just keep an eye on it while it's virgin.

I don't care if it's ugly, just want results.

buy stainless clad knives instead :biggrin:

stainless cladding is annoying on the stones! why i want to stick with full carbon. although stainless clad carbon for line use makes perfect sense.

greased - no, i no longer have the blue steel tanaka, i'm just referring to carbon in general. what's interesting is that watanabe took on an etch really nice, reactivity was nearly nonexistent afterwords. i wonder if that had some kind of specific finish (was purchased new) that helped retain an acid etch better than normal..

Panda if the knife is being used alot,I always let the patina form natural.When the knife is new it is in danger of rust.Not a bad idea to keep damp towel on your board esp. at first.At end of shift warm soapy water & dry completely.The more it is used the faster the patina forms.Agree wt. aaamax I've put on patina's peeling cases of pineapple.No matter just cut whatever you need & at first take extra care.

A1 patina do it about three times and u can paint it on with a brush and design it.

I kept hearing about how reactive the Shig's were, and was nervous once I finally picked one up a few weeks ago. After 8 quarts of onion julienne, reactivity ceased. It's stable as **** now. I think it really depends on the knife. There is no patina wonder cure IMO.

I know it has been brought up in past threads but bacon seems to make for the most stable patina on Shig's. Just keep rubbing down the blade with it and you should end up with a pretty stable patina.

I actually cut a good amount of raw bacon, and smoked brisket with it, which probably helped set the patina. But it seemed pretty stable to begin with after all those onions. I julienne anywhere from 4-12 quarts of onions a day as garnish for our BBQ trays, and no discoloring at all.

Can someone please explain to me the difference between an unstable patina and one that is? I was under the impression that a patina works the same no matter how you acquired it.

Unstable patina will degrade easily, and ofttimes discolor food IME.

brainsausage said:

I actually cut a good amount of raw bacon, and smoked brisket with it, which probably helped set the patina. But it seemed pretty stable to begin with after all those onions. I julienne anywhere from 4-12 quarts of onions a day as garnish for our BBQ trays, and no discoloring at all.

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I would imagine working at a BBQ place,nice patina would form in no time.Unstable patina's are in the beginning when they are not established,thats why carbons sometimes get a bad rap for coloring food etc.They simply have not been used enough.In my experience wt. the blades I used stable always occured just keep cutting.