How do you rustproof and darken a knife blade?

[Rayc384]

Mayonnaise

[429421Cowboy]

Heat blade up to 200`F and place on wooden holding blocks completly submerged by white vinegar for a day, comes out a nice dull oxide gray finish. If you write your name or maker's mark on the blade with a Sharpies marker after you heat it then put it in vinegar it will come out raised instead of inset like most maker's marks

[mstarling]

Depends on the use to which you intend to subject the blade.

Parkerizing works well with 1095. Is not a pretty finish. Durability is OK.

The quick liquid touch up bluing materials will not last well.

he Brownell's Dichropan IM boiled rust blue is pretty good and lasts very well. Real rust blue is as durable as any blue I've ever used.

GunKote is very, very good. I used it for a combat blade I made for my son when he went to war. Is an ATS-34 blade HT'd to RC 59 in molten salt pots. Guard and bolsters are naval bronze that will patina with time. Skins are milled 7075 aluminum. The skins are captured at the front in the guard and at the rear in the bolsters. The skins are also cross bolted with hollow pins. There are holes in the guard as well so the knife can be used as a spear point if necessary.

The finish is FDE GunKote.

Knife looks new after two tours beyond the wire.

[Shooter6br]

Try blacking.Use of drain cleaner.Check old post here under reloading equipment.lt works using Cystal drano and the like

[JASON50CAL]

I would use Brownell's Oxpho blue, it works pretty good and it says there is no worry of after rust like most cold blues so maybe it has a little corosion resistance to it.

[Michael J. Spangler]

http://www.spanglercustomknives.com/..._Knives.html#5

clean the blade
warm with a hair dryer or heat gun
pat with a dauber or applicator soaked in cold blue
suspend in bleach for 10 or 15 minutes till covered in rust
remove the blade, lightly sand with 0000 or 1000 grit paper till off of the light black oxide is gone
lather rinse repeat 2 more times or until "even" coverage is achieved
you can leave the last layer darker or lightly sand with 1000 grit to brighten up the high spots and leave the pits darker.
it gives an awesome look to a blade, and no matter how much you beat it up it doesn't show wear.
my friend got that bolo pictures and had his clear flood. the blade was all rusted and he freaked out. i told him to rub it with some steel wool and wd-40 and it looked like he just picked it up.
it keeps pretty well without rusting, unless of course it sits in a flooded cellar all day long ; )

[onesonek]

After treating with just about any acid based solution, I found Ezzox to be likely one of, if not the best rust prevenitive's around. I haven't tested it against Boeshield as yet, but it cost slightly more regardless.
I did a test against BreakFree CLP, which is supposedly a very good prevenitive.
This steel bar was thuroughly cleaned in degreaser. Then treated in 1/3's with BF/CLP, Hoppes, and Ezzox. With a gap the width of a Q-Tip between.

CLP on the left, Hoppes in the middle, and Ezzox on the right.


Immersed in saltwater bath 3x that of seawater


after 24 hrs.


48 hrs.


72 hrs.


Notice what logically seems the Ezzox crept to fill the void between it and the Hoppes.
Hoppes did pretty good, but was starting it fail.
CLP isn't what I thought it to be.
(note,,,I wiped some of the surface rust off, showing the etching results.)
Now I use Ezzox on everthing, inside and out. It does an excellent job of cleaning bores as well.

[m.chalmers]

Go old school. Blacken it. Get some used motor oil in a metal container the knife will fit in. Heat knife till red and drop in oil. Oh, have something to cover container if you get a flash over (fire). Goggle some Enfield forums and you'll find it written up much better.

[Just Duke]

I used to die my traps with logwood dye. aka Black Walnut hulls

[William Yanda]

Staghorn Sumac blossoms will work too.

[longbow]

Randy's got it... that was my suggestion too ~ parkerize it. If it is good enough for the military it is good enough for me!

Good parkerizing should be durable and do what you want ~ darkening the blade and protecting it from rust.

[Buckeye357]

Clean oil off of blade and soak in apple cider vinegar for about 1/2 hour then wrap blade with cider vinegar soaked paper towel until you get desired color. Clean off vinegar and oil blade and you're good to go. I do this to a lot of my Case CV pocket knives ,just oil blades once in a while. This is the fastest and cheapest method,if you are not in a hurry cut up some apples and clean off and cut some more.
All knives in picture are treated with apple cider vinegar except top left which is untreated.

[Texas by God]

Cut up green pecans till the blade is coated. Let it set a day then oil it. Cheap as it gets. Best, Thomas
but Gun Kote is the best! M starling that is a serious knife. Thank your son for his Service.

[w5pv]

Put it in your pcket and use it when ever and in time the patina will be almost black that's my way.

[flint45]

If you use any acid or other corrisive method protect the edge if it has the edge on it all ready with something so it does not etch you dont want to harm the cutting edge. Iam a knife maker and have ued many of the above methods one of the easiest is good old mustard and vinager also after oil quenching leave the black coating if it is flaking, steel wool lightly with vinager let sit wet then soak in vinager soluition then finnish grinding edge gives a nice look also to blade.

[Lightning22]

I've had very good results with rust bluing on carbon steel blades.

[Ithaca Gunner]

The knife I carry daily is a German, "EYE" brand Sodbuster Jr. Nothing fancy, just a good carbon steel knife that holds an edge. I cut whatever I need to cut, wipe it off and stick it in my pocket. It didn't take long at all for it to get a nice pleasing charcoal color on it's own. I sometimes eat with that knife and don't want chemicals on it.

[Teddy (punchie)]

I was also thinking walnut.

[CastingFool]

I was cutting up some onions yesterday with a carbon steel knife yesterday. I let the knife sit unwashed for a while and when I went to rinse it off, the knife had dark streaks where the onion juice had stained it. Just a thought.

[REDTAIL]

What about spraying the blades with some RUSTOLUM spray paint, would that work also.