How do I form a quick patina on a knife to reduce rust formation?

[ditomura]

I don’t use my knives enough to form a protective patina. I immediately wash and dry my knives after use. I store my knives in a knife block, a magnetic strip or in a drawer with a knife guard. If I put a layer of Tsubaki oil on my knives they don’t rust but I’m lazy and I’d prefer not to do that every time I use a knife. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Tomas Randa]

Cook some sausages and run the core steel through them a bunch when they are still hot. Don’t clean your knife for a few minutes. Do this a bunch. You should get a nice color pop on the core. You can do this with other food too maybe onions or chicken breast give good patina too.

 

[Luminaire]

I've had good success with doing a boiling vinegar etch for 10min 3x with steel wool in between

Or yeah cooked steak or chicken and then let it sit a bit, and then rinse with extremely hot water then wash

 

[refcast]

Soak or spray a high pH solution (washing soda or kansui or lye water, not baking soda pH too neutral). This has helped a bunch to reduce reactivity for me. Dish soap added to it helps too. Then wash off with regular water. The knife becomes a lot less reactive

 

[calibrated_octopus]

Instant coffee works, I think plain yellow mustard is also a fun choice.

I’ve played around with using cork ends or sponges etc to almost do a pattern print in a blade. Depends ofc on your preferences but it can be fun.

 

[Taurahe]

Realistically ..... You don't have to do anything. None of my carbon steel knives get oiled . They are either in a drawer or on a knife bar ..... Hanging out and chilling ..... No rust , no problems..... And I have at least 6 reactive knives on the bar currently

 

[calibrated_octopus]

Realistically ..... You don't have to do anything. None of my carbon steel knives get oiled . They are either in a drawer or on a knife bar ..... Hanging out and chilling ..... No rust , no problems..... And I have at least 6 reactive knives on the bar currently

Largely this has been my experience. I do however have a few offenders that made me wary.

In those cases, I’ve forced a patina for peace of mind.

 

[Taurahe]

Largely this has been my experience. I do however have a few offenders that made me wary.

In those cases, I’ve forced a patina for peace of mind.

That's a fair point, it does serve a purpose. I have been contemplating messing different things to see what does what..... Mainly coffee , tea etc..... I have hot vinegar bathed outdoors knives for years though. It works great

 

[calibrated_octopus]

Hot vinegar on the mind.. .

I’m definitely curious about the different patina mediums and still need to learn the difference between an etch and a force patina. Maybe nothing?

 

[plantgainz]

Realistically ..... You don't have to do anything. None of my carbon steel knives get oiled . They are either in a drawer or on a knife bar ..... Hanging out and chilling ..... No rust , no problems..... And I have at least 6 reactive knives on the bar currently

Guess you are missing a tetsujin in your collection seriously speaking it depends largely by the humidity as well, no way you can skip oiling a stored blade in high humidity places.

 

[Taurahe]

Guess you are missing a tetsujin in your collection seriously speaking it depends largely by the humidity as well, no way you can skip oiling a stored blade in high humidity places.

True
.... Indiana isn't exactly the Panamanian jungle

 

[Luminaire]

My okubo and mazaki rust if you breathe on them
The rest of my carbon stuff is fine no oil no maintenance

 

[SwampDonkey]

Pork roast, act a fool, after 20 minutes lovingly pour a kettle of boiling water over blades, or run under hottest water you can for a bit before actually scrubbing.

Step 5

Bathe in dubiously-earned-glory over on the Patina thread. Also, photograph in overcast/gloomy light outside. Makes the colors pop way more than indoor lighting.

I'm in FL where it's super humid. Inland enough to not have salt air, but I leave all my knives out on mag racks without oiling and never had an issue after forcing these patinas. I only oil if it's going in a box for long term storage. Drawers and sayas with no airflow make me squeamish though.

 

[xsmx13]

From a food prep standpoint there are a couple approaches I like. Probably because I'm a pescatarian, but I like taking knives to some slabs of tuna and letting the juice sit a bit after, which often gives a nice blue and purple patina (I think this can vary some depending on which carbon steel). Another route because my significant other likes to have steaks pre-sliced, I'll take it out of the cast iron and immediately slice it up so it gets that hot juice on the blade (shhh... she hasn't yet correlated me buying slabs of beef with just wanting to play with patinas).

Alternatively, there's the hot super strong instant coffee route to get a more dense dark patina.

 

[ditomura]

Thanks for the replies. The next time I cook, I’ll coat the blade and let the knife sit awhile on the cutting board. Since I have vinegar and coffee at home, I’ll try out those methods. How long should I soak or coat the knives in vinegar or coffee/tea?

 

[jacobwilder5]

I do the hot protein like others. One thing that helps get the patina going is to run the knife under hot water for 30 seconds or so beforehand, dry, then cut.

 

[Nemo]

Cut up a pineapple.

 

[achen002]

Pork roast, act a fool, after 20 minutes lovingly pour a kettle of boiling water over blades, or run under hottest water you can for a bit before actually scrubbing.



View attachment 391071

Step 5

Bathe in dubiously-earned-glory over on the Patina thread. Also, photograph in overcast/gloomy light outside. Makes the colors pop way more than indoor lighting.

View attachment 391072View attachment 391073View attachment 391074




I'm in FL where it's super humid. Inland enough to not have salt air, but I leave all my knives out on mag racks without oiling and never had an issue after forcing these patinas. I only oil if it's going in a box for long term storage. Drawers and sayas with no airflow make me squeamish though.

You leave them in the roast like that for 20 minutes? I thought the moisture from the meat would start rusting the knives

 

[xsmx13]

View attachment 391072

Damn does that look nice.

 

[rinkhals]

You leave them in the roast like that for 20 minutes? I thought the moisture from the meat would start rusting the knives

I do hot water, slice protein but instead of soaking I immediately wipe it dry after cutting. Then I wait a minute or two and repeat the process a couple more times. It's probably essentially the same as soaking but I found this left me with way less yellows and oranges on my most reactive blade.

I also live in a very humid place and don't do any oiling but this forum made me join the handmade cardboard sayas team and I swear by them now.

 

[rickbern]

Cut up a pineapple.

Great advice, then you can make this terrific pineapple recipe from Eric Ripert

Edit. There’s two links here, can’t seem to edit, the second is better
https://www.salon.com/2021/04/27/recipe-quick-and-dirty-sticky-pineapple-sticks/

https://nymag.com/restaurants/articles/recipes/roastedpineapplewithpistachio.htm

 

[SwampDonkey]

You leave them in the roast like that for 20 minutes? I thought the moisture from the meat would start rusting the knives

Nah that's more on the 45-60 minute timeline. Maybe on something like a freshly polished Mazaki that's super reactive you're better off doing a few slices, wait 5 minutes and hot water it just to play safe. My Maz is fine now after a stable patina. Just touchy when I first got it.

 

[achen002]

Nah that's more on the 45-60 minute timeline. Maybe on something like a freshly polished Mazaki that's super reactive you're better off doing a few slices, wait 5 minutes and hot water it just to play safe. My Maz is fine now after a stable patina. Just touchy when I first got it.

On my way to Costco to buy a 30lb pork roast!

 

[Delat]

Thanks for the replies. The next time I cook, I’ll coat the blade and let the knife sit awhile on the cutting board. Since I have vinegar and coffee at home, I’ll try out those methods. How long should I soak or coat the knives in vinegar or coffee/tea?

I give all my carbons a soak in coffee (or ask the maker if it’s a custom). You’ll get results after about an hour, and the knife will continue to darken for 8-12 hours depending on the steel. For the most durable, dark, and even effect, I take the knife out 2-3 times and wash with soap and water to scrub off residue that’ll build up then put it back in to soak more.

Use a super strong mix of instant coffee, nescafé classic recommended. The final finish will likely be streaky and uneven if you do this to a knife with natural patina already built up.

 

[Benuser]

Thanks for the replies. The next time I cook, I’ll coat the blade and let the knife sit awhile on the cutting board. Since I have vinegar and coffee at home, I’ll try out those methods. How long should I soak or coat the knives in vinegar or coffee/tea?

Clean immediately the very edge by cutting lightly in a piece of cork or the seem of a towel. Otherwise, the mustard or vinegar will attack your edge, even so if highly polished.
I once soaked a small knife in vinegar and forgot it. Turned a nice 6k edge into a 60 one or so.
If you're not using the food route but the vinegar, mustard or coffee one, degrease the blade with acetone or alcohol before applying any acid agent to get a more even result.
Rinsing with boiling water helps a lot in the process of turning common rust into patina. It's the next oxidation of rust, after all. Phosphoric acid is another way to instantly turn rust into patina. After all these acids I use plenty of soap to stabilise.

 

[achen002]

All is this has me tempted to try a coffee bath for my telegraph, but terrified to mess up. Are the coffee baths reversible without doing too much damage?

 

[Luminaire]

Pretty sure shi.han already etches it in coffee (or something similar), which is why the core steel is black. Re-etching could make the pattern darker assuming you clean it very well before etc.
But if you want to remove the etch, it will involve sandpaper, and then the cladding will lose its etch&crazy pattern, and you'll have to etch it to bring it back

 

[Benuser]

All is this has me tempted to try a coffee bath for my telegraph, but terrified to mess up. Are the coffee baths reversible without doing too much damage?

No patina formation is reversible.
Patina is the next oxidation of common rust. Just as we can't reverse the rusting — the first phase.

No carbon knife will look as pristine as when you got it out of the box, with fat or lacquer. The only way to keep it like that is not using it.

What you may do is removing the patina and restart the process.

When I give a monosteel carbon a good sharpening, involving some thinning, the patina is gone for perhaps 1" on the right side, and 1/2" on the left one.
It will return quickly with simple use.

I may though remove the patina on the entire blade, and start again the entire process. To remove the patina I prefer using mauve Scotch-Brite parallel to the edge. Don't touch the edge. Degreasing with acetone, applying vinegar, phosphoric acid and so on.

If the patina doesn't feel smooth you may use fine steel wool.

 

[Delat]

Flitz works pretty well for patina removal. If you need to go a little more harsh, then BKF.

Here’s a before and after where I used flitz to remove old patina. I wouldn’t say it’s 100% effective all the time for removing every single trace, but it works well for me and is very mild i.e. non abrasive.

 

[achen002]

Flitz works pretty well for patina removal. If you need to go a little more harsh, then BKF.

Here’s a before and after where I used flitz to remove old patina. I wouldn’t say it’s 100% effective all the time for removing every single trace, but it works well for me and is very mild i.e. non abrasive.
View attachment 391393
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Looks like it did a great job