When I first got into carbon knives, I wasted *countless* company hours playing with forced patinas. Like I was running the dang restaurant, and still finding time to be like "ooooooh okay, let's dab limes on it, leave it for a few hours, then paint tiger stripes with brown mustard, then polish cross stripes with bkf on a cork and thin slice medium rare ribeye and let it sit....."
I've long since given up on forcing patinas, but I assure you professional chefs do in fact do it. As long as you're flexible with how professional the professional is.
I once put a giant stain on the middle of a stainless steel table because the boiling hot delimer I was using to force a patina sloshed out. The aluminum pot that held the delimer did not fare too well either.
