My favorite color is USED .......the unvarnished patina thread!

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Looks like my Maz is in good company! I find it great how the finish of these is sort of “ok”, but not more. It’s like they went “that’ll do, it’s meant to be used anyway”. It makes using it all that much more stress free.

I can definitely see why someone would want to get a highly polished damascus clad knife, some are true works of art, but if it were me I would dread every sharpening out of fear I’d accidentally touch the bevel on the stone and scratch the nice finish.
 
Hey pals! I'm a soon-to-be Japanese knife owner. I've got the pictured knife in the mail, a Shinko Seilan ironclad AS 210 gyuto by Shiro Kamo. I'm wondering what your thoughts on starting and maintaining a healthy patina are for me. I'm fastidious with any necessary upkeep. I'd like to have a naturally born patina that is healthy for the steel- not necessarily anything purposefully absurd or patterned. Thanks for all of your input, everybody!View attachment 67784
Congrats on the knife. Frequently I find that polishing/patina/polishing/patina reduces the reactivity of some knifes and makes for a much more stable knife. Less smell when cutting onions and the like, with a nice stable patina that looks great. Have fun
 
Congrats on the knife. Frequently I find that polishing/patina/polishing/patina reduces the reactivity of some knifes and makes for a much more stable knife. Less smell when cutting onions and the like, with a nice stable patina that looks great. Have fun
Thanks a lot! What exactly are you meaning when you say polishing?
 
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Thanks a lot! What exactly are you meaning when you say polishing?
Just that. Polishing the primary bevel (typically with a progression of high grit stones or finger stones) to clean up grind marks from manufacturer, any edge work you might do etc. Not sure why this helps but polishing the bevel on many of my knives dramatically improved the reactivity (less reactive) See the sharpening station for more info. To keep this on topic here is an example...125sc honyaki that is barely reactive at this point
 
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Just that. Polishing the primary bevel (typically with a progression of high grit stones or finger stones) to clean up grind marks from manufacturer, any edge work you might do etc. Not sure why this helps but polishing the bevel on many of my knives dramatically improved the reactivity (less reactive) See the sharpening station for more info. To keep this on topic here is an example...125sc honyaki that is barely reactive at this point

Probably you’re just making the finish smoother. A high grit finish (in the extreme, a mirror polish) is less reactive than a low grit finish. This makes sense, because little nooks and crannies and stuff make more surface area on the blade to react with. Probably there’s a better explanation, too.

But I’d imagine that the fact that you’re going patina/polish/patina/polish is irrelevant, and it’s just all the polishing that makes the difference.
 
Probably you’re just making the finish smoother.

But I’d imagine that the fact that you’re going patina/polish/patina/polish is irrelevant, and it’s just all the polishing that makes the difference.
Perhaps though I'm not so sure. Best results come from Aizu > Uchi finish. Both stones exhibit reactive response to the carbon steel, ie if I leave the mud on the knife for longer then 1-2 min they will discolor the metal. I suspect this contributes as well.
 
Perhaps though I'm not so sure. Best results come from Aizu > Uchi finish. Both stones exhibit reactive response to the carbon steel, ie if I leave the mud on the knife for longer then 1-2 min they will discolor the metal. I suspect this contributes as well.
Interesting indeed. This and the surface area bit totally make sense. On that note, for a start, I bought a combo 220/1k Naniwa stone. (I think I got a decent hang of it today which was my first time sharpening; I sharpened Jamie Oliver santoku that's been in the block a while.) Do you recon that's an acceptable stone for an AS knife (which is soon to arrive) or should I go and grab a couple steps higher?
 
Naniwa, whichever line you have, are better than Amazon generic stones. You'll be fine. The more expensive ones probably cut faster and dish slower, but it's not a big deal.
 
Okay pals, as I mentioned, I recently invested in a Shinko Seilan AS gyuto 210 KU by Shiro Kamo. Here is a picture when I got it and then after a few days of vegetable action. (Onion, tomato, lime, potato, cilantro, jalapeno, garlic, broccoli, cauliflower, and carrot to be specific.)

Does it look like it should? Anything concerning about the patina? IS that a patina?

(I know, I chipped the very tip of the blade while cleaning it. Should be a relatively easy repair.)

Thanks for your feedback, everybody!
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Does it have any texture to it? If not, it's fine. Where the orangeish color is, is that where most of the garlic was done?
No texture anywhere; all smooth. I use a lot of garlic. I played with cutting near the tip somewhat but the garlic was largely cut around the central area.
 
No texture anywhere; all smooth. I use a lot of garlic. I played with cutting near the tip somewhat but the garlic was largely cut around the central area.

Some iron/steel reacts to garlic with an orange/red/rust color. But since it's smooth and that's where the majority of the garlic was cut, you're good.
 
Some iron/steel reacts to garlic with an orange/red/rust color. But since it's smooth and that's where the majority of the garlic was cut, you're good.
Cool! If I get more heavy rust, so I need a rust remover type thing?
 
That'll work but I'd save it for heavier rust. You can use baking soda paste, simichrome or similar, slurry from your finer stones.
 
How is this different than the stickied patina thread?

You're supposed to post more funky patinas here. Don't post a beautiful blue that you get after taking your brand new knife out and cutting through some chicken breast a few times. Rather, post pics of some knife that you've left out on the counter for hours multiple times and abused heavily in your kitchen. This is a thread for rugged beauty.
 
This is a thread for rugged beauty.
Ian, you are being way too diplomatic here. This thread is for ugly knives, pure and simple.

None of this hipster "see that unusual shade of purple I got by cutting star fruit from Sri Lanka, followed by a 25-minute bath in an emulsion of 50% pure unhomogenised and unpasteurised milk and 50% lightly puréed eye of newt".

The kind of knife we want to see here is "I cut 16 kg of onion and then broke down an ox carcass, and now the knife looks like crap."

—That's not a patina… That's a patina!

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My first patina! :D

Got it from prepping dinner for the family, cut some raw chicken breast, onion, carrot and broccoli. Was going to chop up some potatoes but they were rancid sadly :(

Hope this is ugly enough for youse ;)
 

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