I recently used sauerkraut and loved the results. I will say the way the onion purée was spread on the knife is my approach to covering the blade. Creates interesting patterns like little islands. Good video is good! Love the patina nerd content!
Coke seems to be the way for people that dont have time to let the patina build up naturally. Shake out the carbonic acid quite good and you wont have issues with those bubbles. Nice vid, I loved it. ❤
Mustard is probably the best way to go. It’s a paste and so can be applied thick but be textured in a way to allow air to still get to the blade. Takes 15-30+ minutes to get a single layer. Can be used to create very intricate layers and patterns.
My maximum internet fame has been reached :) To get a more uniform patina I literally cover the blade with the steak and let it sit, then move it around so that all parts of the blade are covered, then let it sit. Also the hotter the juices, the better the result seems to be. I'm really glad you gave this technique a try and that you got some good results from your testing.
I did the onion patina with my carbon steel Mora camp knife. I left the blade stuck a giant white onion over night and was left with a tiger stripe patina that was the cell walls of the onion. I also got a 300mm White #2 yanigaba and cut my dogs soft food from large sausage like tubes of food. The fat from the healthy dog food and the mainly protein cutting I’ve done with the yani has left an amazing BLUE patina on the blade.
What kind of dog food is that? I make my dog her food from big pork shoulders, rice, peas and carrots. But, for some reason it doesn't leave much of a patina.
@@Nickporter17 Fresh Pet Nature’s Fresh beef and turkey is what we normally switch between. I cut 1/2in pucks, stack, rotate 90 and the cross cut @1/2in. I try and use the full length of the blade on the cuts and it had made a pretty fantastic patina to look at. That FreshPet is the only thing I have found here in Texas at HEB, Krogers, and Costco. My wife does not find the task of cutting the dog food nearly as much as I do.
Fun fact: I gave my sink a good scrub with bar keepers friend. When I rinsed it down the drain it opened up my slow running drain. Awesome for cleaning knives and cook wear. Great multi purpose product.
The steak was definitely my favourite. Ultimately, I think I just enjoy the slow and natural process of the knife developing a patina from regular use. The patina feels more personal and authentic. Maybe that is why I liked the steak patina the most. Fun video. Thanks.
Those munestoshi's punch way above their weight. I have one of these and it's probably my most used knife. I have a bunch of way more expensive knives. But, the santoku cuts like nothing else. Food releases insane. There's zero drag. Especially those horizontal cuts through onions that a lot of other nights struggle with.
Was lucky enough to pick up this Steak patina knife at the Garage Sale. It has still only cut steak (well, and me, once) and is slowly getting a nice rainbow patina with lots of blues and greens. Thank you Skye! 😁
I really like the Coke finish. Quick heads up about the ferric chloride. It can embrittle the edge, especially on as fine an edge as a kitchen knife. Ideally you'd want to sharpen it back a touch to get back to good steel, but personally I wouldn't recommend ferric on a kitchen knife. I'll definitely be trying the coke method though. Great vid!
Bacon works but it's in the long run. I'm cutting between two to three 5kg boxes of bacon per week and within the first month of using my white steel gyuto it started to get really Nice shades of blue. Also cutting lemon confit leaves really dark shades on your knife
@@KnifewearKnives update on the lemon confit. I had to cut some for my mise en place and rub some lemon flesh on all the knife and let it rest for 30 seconds before wiping. While I had a nice reaction on the hard core steel, it turned dark blue/black, the softer iron clading started to rust. So proceed with care with lemon confit!
Application method is more important than the specific type of acid you use. The most even and controlled method is to soak a long, narrow strip of paper towel so that it's all wet, but NOT dripping wet. Then FOLD it over the edge of the knife, so that it ONLY touches the cutting edge where the core carbon steel is exposed. I did this with lemon juice on a HAP40 blade for exactly 7 min, and it left a dark gray and uniform patina along the edge without affecting the stainless steel cladding at all. HAP40 is semi-stainless, so you should only need 5 min or less with something like Aogami Super, and even less with Blue 1/2.
i never force but i always get a great blue patina after cutting onions, and quickly washing and drying. i never oil my carbon blades, even my cumai blades, never get rust either (carbon) or corrosion (in the cumai stuff) great vid. i can't believe i just watched 28 mins of this lol.
I haven’t purchased a new knife yet. When I get my knife and do the steak or onion test .what happens the next time I cut a tomato or a grapefruit?what will happen to the first patina?
I worked in Yardbird and my choice of knife is a Aogami 2 Kitaoka Honesuki. During the 3 hours duration of cutting chicken nonestop, it develops a fairly decent layer of patina! Can try chicken fat next time
This is an interesting video. I'm a cooking enthusiast. I have also bought most of my fancy knvies from Knifewear. I'm separately the only medically released Canadian Armed Forces soldier to negotiate a 6 month, full-time apprenticeship as a Traditional Blacksmith. I did a proper, old-school apprenticeship in coal blacksmithing with a Master Smith for 6 months, full-time. Not just 'bladesmithing', but full on Pre-Industrial Fabrication. I fully appreciate the thousands of dollars of steel you just experimented on. Kudos for the sacrifice. Ferric Chloride is obviously the standard for producing an even 'industrial' patina on the steel. The patterns, my favorite being the onion, are cool. But I still can't help but wonder why you would 'force' a patina. And I totally get it in terms of internet culture, so-to-speak. But between being a cooking enthusiast & a formally trained blacksmith; I have to suggest that time is the only true way to express yourself honestly. It will reflect what you 'actually' do with your knife, rather than whatever fad of the day is ongoing at the time you purchase your knifewear. On the function of Science regarding forced patinas, I may suggest if you ever consider something like this again to take more metric data in a matrix. You can take the pH, primary reactive substance (vingears/acetic acid, etc) vs the composition of the steel so that you can more specifically and accurately graph your results. All in all, it was a great video. Thanks again for sacrificing that steel to test. I'll be interested in a next video in this set regardless the route you choose. Cheers.
A real easy way to put a patina on your brand new knife is to go on RUclips, look up a video on how to patina your knife while processing food with it and leaving it sitting on the counter. Yep that worked.
As a beginner with carbon knives, I have a couple of questions for you please. I just ordered a knife made of aogami #2 with stainless clad. I wasn't aware of the "importance?" of patina.. but if I heard correctly, forcing patina is a good thing and I don't need to use a rust eraser to try and remove it? Just standard cleaning/drying from then on, and if I see rust appear, then I'd use the eraser on the rust spot only? Is that correct? Also, you mention that you suggest people to avoid cutting citruses with a caebon knife. Is this only when you first get the knife until patina is formed? Or is it a general rule of thumb to avoid using a carbon knife for citrus? Any difference with a stainless clad blade? I guess the blade will just patina on the edge? Thanks for any pointers.. cheers!
For myself, I allow the knife to develop a patina over time instead of forcing one. The patina does help with rust resistance a bit, but forcing a deep patina isn't necessary! So long as you keep the knife dry you should be A-okay!
@@KnifewearKnivesI’m a beginner as well, I went to my local knife shop and they recommended I buy a bottle of Camilla oil and use it on my knife after every use to prevent a patina and rusting…. After I bought it I found your YT. I haven’t seen a video yet where yall talk about camellia oil, is it not something you recommend?
If you want a look, try a grainy mustard, let it sit for a few minutes for it to start to work and then wipe off excess. If you like the look, then keep it. All of these are just for a very temporary look, because you literally cut anything reactive, and it changes it. This works better on pocket knives, like an Opinel. It only puts a surface on it that you can wipe off with a mild abrasive with little effort. So don't get attached to the look.
Top tip regarding the coffee & water technique. I was hanging my bushcraft knife with curly birch handle, and for some reason the edge of the handle got in contact with the coffee mixture... Well, the handle split and twisted on the edge... Gutted. Brand new knife. Anyway...
Chopped garlic, wedge the blade on it and remove after 3 minutes and rinse with hot water and repeat until you get the desired effect. Thats how i get my semi abalone patina looking.
Patina 's that are liquid-based. Like onion juice and other liquids. APPLYING IT WITH A SPRAY BOTTLE. Doing one side at a time carefully so the blade is flat.
Hey, your finger should remove it, but a chemical reaction like lemon juice or bar keepers friend can remove or change it. If you have a solid patina built it'll continue to change, but you'd need to really scrub with bar keepers friend to remove it.
I think the Coke needs to be flat. Leave the bottle open for a couple days prior, I bet the bubble marks would be gone. Side by side, I think the Coke finish looks slightly better than the coffee if you can get rid of the bubbles. That's my two cents!
My go to is steak/onion. It's probably just me, but I've felt like steak has worked better for Aogami and Onion better for Shirogami. There is only one more thing to try and that would be the Nekonoshoben method which has reached mythical reputation. Is it a scam? Is it the secret technique to most amazing patina? Who knows ;)
One reason is the patina helps form a natural barrier against rust (patina is not rust), it's not perfect, but it helps a lot. #2 is I have a lot of knives in my rotation, and it takes forever for patina to form so it looks good, and sometimes rust starts first. #3 you can at least try and control the look you get. With just letting it patina "naturally", you really have no control, and it doesn't always look good. Of course, all of this is natural. We're just speeding up nature. It's like a science project.
Did I miss a part where she said what type of carbon steel those knives are? Would be useful to know, with my knife collection different carbon steels seem to patina differently.
So, I've really got to ask because I'm curious. Why doesn a full carbon blade rust so fast if not wiped off within 10 minutes or so?? Yet, you can fully submerge it in liquid (coffee) for 24 hours and it only forms a nice patina? I'm just clueless on how this does form extreme rust.
That's a great question! Oxygen is essentially to create rust, so a lot of submersion methods work because there is no air contacting the steel to create rust.
Not putting in the effort to take care of your tools, so they develop a patina is one thing. But taking extra effort to have your tools look like you did not put in the effort of taking care of them is just silly.
I recently used sauerkraut and loved the results.
I will say the way the onion purée was spread on the knife is my approach to covering the blade.
Creates interesting patterns like little islands.
Good video is good! Love the patina nerd content!
We'll have to try sauerkraut next!
Sauerkraut and onions are food. Food is supposed to be eaten and not used to ruin one's tools.
Coke seems to be the way for people that dont have time to let the patina build up naturally.
Shake out the carbonic acid quite good and you wont have issues with those bubbles.
Nice vid, I loved it. ❤
I might have to let it go flat next time! Glad you enjoyed it!
Mustard is probably the best way to go. It’s a paste and so can be applied thick but be textured in a way to allow air to still get to the blade. Takes 15-30+ minutes to get a single layer. Can be used to create very intricate layers and patterns.
My maximum internet fame has been reached :)
To get a more uniform patina I literally cover the blade with the steak and let it sit, then move it around so that all parts of the blade are covered, then let it sit. Also the hotter the juices, the better the result seems to be.
I'm really glad you gave this technique a try and that you got some good results from your testing.
Thanks again for the comment, that's good to know!
I did the onion patina with my carbon steel Mora camp knife. I left the blade stuck a giant white onion over night and was left with a tiger stripe patina that was the cell walls of the onion. I also got a 300mm White #2 yanigaba and cut my dogs soft food from large sausage like tubes of food. The fat from the healthy dog food and the mainly protein cutting I’ve done with the yani has left an amazing BLUE patina on the blade.
What kind of dog food is that? I make my dog her food from big pork shoulders, rice, peas and carrots. But, for some reason it doesn't leave much of a patina.
@@Nickporter17 Fresh Pet Nature’s Fresh beef and turkey is what we normally switch between. I cut 1/2in pucks, stack, rotate 90 and the cross cut @1/2in. I try and use the full length of the blade on the cuts and it had made a pretty fantastic patina to look at. That FreshPet is the only thing I have found here in Texas at HEB, Krogers, and Costco. My wife does not find the task of cutting the dog food nearly as much as I do.
Woah, those both sound incredible!
@@Nickporter17 Your dog eating better than me.
Fun fact: I gave my sink a good scrub with bar keepers friend. When I rinsed it down the drain it opened up my slow running drain. Awesome for cleaning knives and cook wear. Great multi purpose product.
Okay, I gotta try this 🤯
I just pour a 2 liter of Coca Cola down the drain every now and again.
The steak was definitely my favourite. Ultimately, I think I just enjoy the slow and natural process of the knife developing a patina from regular use. The patina feels more personal and authentic. Maybe that is why I liked the steak patina the most. Fun video. Thanks.
Right? That's what I do when I'm not making a video. Thanks!
Same here. It's a reward. Authentic aging that comes from many wonderful meals prepared.
Those munestoshi's punch way above their weight. I have one of these and it's probably my most used knife. I have a bunch of way more expensive knives. But, the santoku cuts like nothing else. Food releases insane. There's zero drag. Especially those horizontal cuts through onions that a lot of other nights struggle with.
I couldn't have said it better myself, they're fantastic!
Was lucky enough to pick up this Steak patina knife at the Garage Sale. It has still only cut steak (well, and me, once) and is slowly getting a nice rainbow patina with lots of blues and greens. Thank you Skye! 😁
What is a human, but a steak-wrapped skeleton? Seriously though, glad you enjoyed it!
I really like the Coke finish. Quick heads up about the ferric chloride. It can embrittle the edge, especially on as fine an edge as a kitchen knife. Ideally you'd want to sharpen it back a touch to get back to good steel, but personally I wouldn't recommend ferric on a kitchen knife. I'll definitely be trying the coke method though. Great vid!
Good to know, thank you! The Coke was my fave too.
I just use vinegar without boiling it. Leave the knife in for 2-3 hours. Always comes out with a deep and even patina.
Bacon works but it's in the long run. I'm cutting between two to three 5kg boxes of bacon per week and within the first month of using my white steel gyuto it started to get really Nice shades of blue. Also cutting lemon confit leaves really dark shades on your knife
Ahhh, that makes more sense. Lemon confit sounds interesting!
@@KnifewearKnives update on the lemon confit. I had to cut some for my mise en place and rub some lemon flesh on all the knife and let it rest for 30 seconds before wiping. While I had a nice reaction on the hard core steel, it turned dark blue/black, the softer iron clading started to rust. So proceed with care with lemon confit!
Application method is more important than the specific type of acid you use.
The most even and controlled method is to soak a long, narrow strip of paper towel so that it's all wet, but NOT dripping wet. Then FOLD it over the edge of the knife, so that it ONLY touches the cutting edge where the core carbon steel is exposed.
I did this with lemon juice on a HAP40 blade for exactly 7 min, and it left a dark gray and uniform patina along the edge without affecting the stainless steel cladding at all.
HAP40 is semi-stainless, so you should only need 5 min or less with something like Aogami Super, and even less with Blue 1/2.
I'll have to try that out!
I like cold bluing. Try Birchwood Casey Cold Bluing compound.
I'll give it a go!
i never force but i always get a great blue patina after cutting onions, and quickly washing and drying. i never oil my carbon blades, even my cumai blades, never get rust either (carbon) or corrosion (in the cumai stuff) great vid. i can't believe i just watched 28 mins of this lol.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I haven’t purchased a new knife yet. When I get my knife and do the steak or onion test .what happens the next time I cut a tomato or a grapefruit?what will happen to the first patina?
I worked in Yardbird and my choice of knife is a Aogami 2 Kitaoka Honesuki. During the 3 hours duration of cutting chicken nonestop, it develops a fairly decent layer of patina! Can try chicken fat next time
That's super cool, I'll give it a go!
This was so well presented and entertaining. I just allow my carbon knife to develop a natural patina over time through regular use.
Thank you! So do I usually.
This is an interesting video. I'm a cooking enthusiast. I have also bought most of my fancy knvies from Knifewear. I'm separately the only medically released Canadian Armed Forces soldier to negotiate a 6 month, full-time apprenticeship as a Traditional Blacksmith. I did a proper, old-school apprenticeship in coal blacksmithing with a Master Smith for 6 months, full-time. Not just 'bladesmithing', but full on Pre-Industrial Fabrication.
I fully appreciate the thousands of dollars of steel you just experimented on. Kudos for the sacrifice.
Ferric Chloride is obviously the standard for producing an even 'industrial' patina on the steel. The patterns, my favorite being the onion, are cool. But I still can't help but wonder why you would 'force' a patina. And I totally get it in terms of internet culture, so-to-speak. But between being a cooking enthusiast & a formally trained blacksmith; I have to suggest that time is the only true way to express yourself honestly. It will reflect what you 'actually' do with your knife, rather than whatever fad of the day is ongoing at the time you purchase your knifewear.
On the function of Science regarding forced patinas, I may suggest if you ever consider something like this again to take more metric data in a matrix. You can take the pH, primary reactive substance (vingears/acetic acid, etc) vs the composition of the steel so that you can more specifically and accurately graph your results.
All in all, it was a great video. Thanks again for sacrificing that steel to test. I'll be interested in a next video in this set regardless the route you choose.
Cheers.
I love your input, thank you! I definitely prefer the natural method myself, but it's fun to experiment for a video. I'm glad you enjoyed it!
A real easy way to put a patina on your brand new knife is to go on RUclips, look up a video on how to patina your knife while processing food with it and leaving it sitting on the counter. Yep that worked.
As a beginner with carbon knives, I have a couple of questions for you please. I just ordered a knife made of aogami #2 with stainless clad. I wasn't aware of the "importance?" of patina.. but if I heard correctly, forcing patina is a good thing and I don't need to use a rust eraser to try and remove it? Just standard cleaning/drying from then on, and if I see rust appear, then I'd use the eraser on the rust spot only? Is that correct?
Also, you mention that you suggest people to avoid cutting citruses with a caebon knife. Is this only when you first get the knife until patina is formed? Or is it a general rule of thumb to avoid using a carbon knife for citrus?
Any difference with a stainless clad blade? I guess the blade will just patina on the edge?
Thanks for any pointers.. cheers!
For myself, I allow the knife to develop a patina over time instead of forcing one. The patina does help with rust resistance a bit, but forcing a deep patina isn't necessary! So long as you keep the knife dry you should be A-okay!
@@KnifewearKnivesI’m a beginner as well, I went to my local knife shop and they recommended I buy a bottle of Camilla oil and use it on my knife after every use to prevent a patina and rusting…. After I bought it I found your YT. I haven’t seen a video yet where yall talk about camellia oil, is it not something you recommend?
The reason I would say that the drain cleaner did not work is because it is composed of Sodium Hydroxide which is alkaline as opposed to acidic
Aha, that makes sense!
If you want a look, try a grainy mustard, let it sit for a few minutes for it to start to work and then wipe off excess. If you like the look, then keep it. All of these are just for a very temporary look, because you literally cut anything reactive, and it changes it. This works better on pocket knives, like an Opinel. It only puts a surface on it that you can wipe off with a mild abrasive with little effort. So don't get attached to the look.
Top tip regarding the coffee & water technique.
I was hanging my bushcraft knife with curly birch handle, and for some reason the edge of the handle got in contact with the coffee mixture...
Well, the handle split and twisted on the edge...
Gutted.
Brand new knife.
Anyway...
Oh no! That's good to know, I'm sorry to hear it.
Chopped garlic, wedge the blade on it and remove after 3 minutes and rinse with hot water and repeat until you get the desired effect. Thats how i get my semi abalone patina looking.
🤯🤯🤯
Would dipping high carbon steel knife in vinegar lose the temper of the knife? Please advise.
It wouldn't mess with the heat treatment, but it can mess with the carbon steel itself! Leave it to long it'll get pretty rusty.
@@KnifewearKnives My knife was heat treated and oil tempered. So I hope no issues can happen to its temper. Thank you for your insightful reply. 👍
Patina 's that are liquid-based. Like onion juice and other liquids. APPLYING IT WITH A SPRAY BOTTLE. Doing one side at a time carefully so the blade is flat.
That's a great tip, thank you!
Most drain cleaners are basic, not acidic. You'd get a very dark patina very fast with Rooto drain cleaner, which is concentrated sulfuric acid
Good to know!
If blue patina = heat+moisture+protein, what about mixing a heavy dose of protein powder into hot water and using that?
That's so insane, we need to try it. I think it's something other than the protein causing the reaction, but it's worth a shot!
How long do these patinas last? Will any just rub away if you rub it with your finger or cut something acidic?
Hey, your finger should remove it, but a chemical reaction like lemon juice or bar keepers friend can remove or change it. If you have a solid patina built it'll continue to change, but you'd need to really scrub with bar keepers friend to remove it.
Is there’s a way you can remove the black paint on the knives like Masakage Koishi and Fujimoto Hammer Tone?!
Thanks
Scrub with bar keepers friend
I think the Coke needs to be flat. Leave the bottle open for a couple days prior, I bet the bubble marks would be gone. Side by side, I think the Coke finish looks slightly better than the coffee if you can get rid of the bubbles. That's my two cents!
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense!
Thanks for a very entertaining video ❤
Thanks Admiral!
Did you use a strong 35% Vinegar or a more normal 3.5% - 12%?
Just the normal weak stuff!
“Hey Sky, what’d you do at your work today?”😂😂😂 21:15
Do you know if Masamune kitchen knives from kamakura are any good?
I've never tried them, but they look nice!
Great video. I recommend you get a camera with a manual focus.
Skye is normally the one behind the camera, so that's on the unexperienced camera guy. Glad you enjoyed it!
Is there any way of stopping onions from turning brown I use a carbon steel knife.
Once you build up a good patina, the steel shouldn't react with onions nearly as much, and will affect them much less.
This video was fun. My favorite is the steak.
Doesn't it look neat??
My go to is steak/onion. It's probably just me, but I've felt like steak has worked better for Aogami and Onion better for Shirogami.
There is only one more thing to try and that would be the Nekonoshoben method which has reached mythical reputation. Is it a scam? Is it the secret technique to most amazing patina? Who knows ;)
Huh, I'll have to look into it and give it a try!
4:37 How to cure iron deficiency in 3 easy steps!
Smoked and juicey ham, dear Skye, that's the way to go for instant patina ....you can smell it as the metal reacts to the juices
I think you mentioned that last time, if we do pt. 3 we'll have to give it a go!
Mustard works
Try with red onion!
Will do!
Look mom, I'm on TV!!! 😁
Why to force it? The pleasure is to see the evolution of the patina over use and time, isn't it?
Mostly for fun, I generally prefer natural as well!
One reason is the patina helps form a natural barrier against rust (patina is not rust), it's not perfect, but it helps a lot. #2 is I have a lot of knives in my rotation, and it takes forever for patina to form so it looks good, and sometimes rust starts first. #3 you can at least try and control the look you get. With just letting it patina "naturally", you really have no control, and it doesn't always look good. Of course, all of this is natural. We're just speeding up nature. It's like a science project.
Why aren’t knives blued?
White vinegar applied with toilet paper specifically has given me great results that are still random patterns
Huh, good to know!
Did I miss a part where she said what type of carbon steel those knives are?
Would be useful to know, with my knife collection different carbon steels seem to patina differently.
I'm not sure but these are shirogami number 2 (W2). They are great knives for the price!
I think I forgot! They're Shirogami #2
YEAH DUDE!!!!
I find that using my knives adds patina. YMMV.
Have you tried Ketchup?
Not yet!
I use it to clean my copper cazo after making carnitas. It’s highly acidic. Leaves the copper looking as if it were polished.
strawberries
bruh my google started a timer for one hour
😂
"thick, viscous..." 😅 "...a little chunky" 😨wait what
hot water can ruin the heat treatment of your knife, making the steel soft and unusable
Nope
yall didn't split the chapters up. After "intro" it stays "coffee" for the remainder of the video smh my head
🤦🤦🤦
Fixed, thank you!
😢 no way to make blue patina without cutting up expensive meat?
Find the cheapest piece of meat you can! A chuck steak or pork chop should do the trick.
😍😍😍
So how much money did ya’ll spend on knives for this video? 😎😁🤪🆒
So, I've really got to ask because I'm curious. Why doesn a full carbon blade rust so fast if not wiped off within 10 minutes or so?? Yet, you can fully submerge it in liquid (coffee) for 24 hours and it only forms a nice patina? I'm just clueless on how this does form extreme rust.
That's a great question! Oxygen is essentially to create rust, so a lot of submersion methods work because there is no air contacting the steel to create rust.
Omg no paint thinner in a closed room! Outside is best. So bad for you
It made work a little more fun 😵💫
Not putting in the effort to take care of your tools, so they develop a patina is one thing. But taking extra effort to have your tools look like you did not put in the effort of taking care of them is just silly.
You do understand that developing a patina is GOOD carbon knife care, right?
I don't know how I got here and have no idea why you people are trying to make your knives ugly. 😵💫😵💫
They are carbon steel knives, this is to prevent them from rusting .
Have you ever used a Japanese knife?