Patina - fun or folly

[mcpop]

Hi Guys,

I lurked, then posted and got great advice, and lurked once more.

Mrs McPop got me a Masamoto HC Gyuto for my birthday (God bless that woman!).

First time I tried it was on pickles, tomatoes, cheese and pepperoni.  Even though I was expecting it, I was amazed at the instant oxidization.  I thought this could be fun so I polished it back and made some patterns using herbs from the garden and vinegar.

On the first side is flat parsley (sorry about photo quality, it is night and I using a phone camera):



And the obverse side is sage:



And after soaking in a vinegar dilution (10%) for about 30 minutes, the end result (parsley side isn't a good photo, unfortunately):





Nice and subtle...and surely to be destroyed with tomorrow night's dinner.  

Cheers,

McPop.

 

[boar_d_laze]

Wow.

BDL

 

[tylerm713]

Interesting idea, and I appreciate the creativity. But I'm not a fan. I'm not big on ornamentation though.

 

[phatch]

Forcing a patina isn't so much about ornamentation as long term protection, generally.

The herb patination is ornamentation.

 

[tylerm713]

Forcing a patina isn't so much about ornamentation as long term protection, generally.

I do that with all of my hunting knives that aren't SS. In general, they take much more abuse than kitchen knives.

 

 

[mcpop]

The forced patina is for protection.  The decoration is just a lark...and an experiment with this material.  I'm under no illusions that it will be destroyed within a few days' dinners.

The factory edge was ok but after forcing the patina it seemed blunter.  Is this my imagination or did that little corrosion really knock the edge off it (no pun intended)?

But a quick rub on some whetstones fixed that.  Now I can see why people like carbon. Very nice cutting tool.

McPop.