IronHills Dwarf
November 23rd,2005, 08:38 PM
As per request how to antique a blade.
First of all lets cover what you're trying to do by antiquing. Obviously you want to give your blade an older look. Antiquing is basically speeding up the patina process. This means that you rust the blade. Sounds shocking eh? Rust is the bad stuff right? Well not really. There's two types of rust. Active and passive. Passive is what we know as patina, it's dark and doesn't actively eat into your steel. Active is the red stuff, it's nasty and has to be dwelt with. So whenever you antique the blade be aware you WILL be RUSTING it.
There are several methods you can try. The first and easiest - bury the sword in the ground (you'll want to mask off leather when you do this and understand you run the risk of getting water damage to leather and wood on the sword). Dig it up after a month or two.
Secondly you can do an acid etch (ferric acid). I haven't tried this one but you'd need to sand the blade first.
Thirdly is the mustard technique. Smear mustard on the blade and let it sit for a few hours. I want to try this one because I figure with a seeded mustard you could get some interesting patterns. Anyways you let it dry before you go on.
Thirdly you can coat the blade in vinegar. Some people like to dissolve salt into the vinegar first to get a different pattern. Either way you need to let it sit on the blade for a few hours. I have had good success with wrapping the blade in a vinegar soaked sheet to ensure that the liquid stays on both sides of the blade. When it's dry you're ready for the next step.
After you've rusted up your blade nicely you need to remove all that yuky active rust. Use fine steel wool (0000), and really really high grit sand paper (note, using the paper will scratch the blade and remove mass to some degree, but you can buff it out with a little work). Do your first gunk removal on a dry blade. You can use the paper to match tone of the patina if need be.
Your next worry (assuming you like the basic look of your patina so far) is to stablize the blade. You've just infected the entire thing with active rust, you want to make sure it ain't coming back no more no more. I tend to use WD-40 for this. Spray the blade down with the WD-40 and let it sit for 5 minutes or so. Then using steel wool scrub the blade.
Now just do any polishing you want or leave it looking a little rougher and do your regular blade cleaning and oiling. :)
First of all lets cover what you're trying to do by antiquing. Obviously you want to give your blade an older look. Antiquing is basically speeding up the patina process. This means that you rust the blade. Sounds shocking eh? Rust is the bad stuff right? Well not really. There's two types of rust. Active and passive. Passive is what we know as patina, it's dark and doesn't actively eat into your steel. Active is the red stuff, it's nasty and has to be dwelt with. So whenever you antique the blade be aware you WILL be RUSTING it.
There are several methods you can try. The first and easiest - bury the sword in the ground (you'll want to mask off leather when you do this and understand you run the risk of getting water damage to leather and wood on the sword). Dig it up after a month or two.
Secondly you can do an acid etch (ferric acid). I haven't tried this one but you'd need to sand the blade first.
Thirdly is the mustard technique. Smear mustard on the blade and let it sit for a few hours. I want to try this one because I figure with a seeded mustard you could get some interesting patterns. Anyways you let it dry before you go on.
Thirdly you can coat the blade in vinegar. Some people like to dissolve salt into the vinegar first to get a different pattern. Either way you need to let it sit on the blade for a few hours. I have had good success with wrapping the blade in a vinegar soaked sheet to ensure that the liquid stays on both sides of the blade. When it's dry you're ready for the next step.
After you've rusted up your blade nicely you need to remove all that yuky active rust. Use fine steel wool (0000), and really really high grit sand paper (note, using the paper will scratch the blade and remove mass to some degree, but you can buff it out with a little work). Do your first gunk removal on a dry blade. You can use the paper to match tone of the patina if need be.
Your next worry (assuming you like the basic look of your patina so far) is to stablize the blade. You've just infected the entire thing with active rust, you want to make sure it ain't coming back no more no more. I tend to use WD-40 for this. Spray the blade down with the WD-40 and let it sit for 5 minutes or so. Then using steel wool scrub the blade.
Now just do any polishing you want or leave it looking a little rougher and do your regular blade cleaning and oiling. :)