Forced patina using mustard...

I decided to try my hand at putting a basic patina on one of my fixed blade knives.  There are several different ways to do this.  A lot of people use vinegar.  Basically, any carbon steel blade will develop at patina over time from daily use.  The gradual change in colors and markings adds character to the blade giving it an old-world look.  I decided to speed up the process on my Blind Horse Knives Brumby-Lite

model and do a forced patina using good 'ol yellow mustard.

Here is the before picture...

This is after about 20 minutes of the mustard being on the blade.  You can see the acid already at work. I smeared on the mustard then used a piece of paper towel and my finger to smudge it around until I had what I thought would look good.  I really had no idea what to expect being my first attempt.

After a total of about 50 minutes on each side here are the final results....

Overall, the O1 tooled steel is slightly darker then it started and the random dark patina spots give it a look I'm happy with.  This was less then an hour of soaking in the yellow mustard.  I think I will put another coat on to darken it a bit more.

Here is a parting shot with a custom sheath I finished for it this week as well.  Thanks for looking!