Turning new into old (sort of)

[John Whitaker]

Here is my first attempt at patina on my CS Trail Hawk. I forgot to take before pic's but basically paint stripper and scrap. I then made a bath of vinegar, hydrogen peroxide and salt. I warmed it up with the heat gun then dunk, remove and rewarm and repeat until desired effect. I finished it up with a coat of Briwax to help seal it in (one site recommended Penetrol which I didn't have). I sanded the handle and applied a coat of minwax.

The Bath
 

The results
 

 

 

 

[David Yukon]

interesting, what is the darker part up front, close to the edge??

[John Whitaker]

i think it might be where it was heat treated, it has the same thing on the hammer portion.

[Bjorn]

Nice job!!

[karrow]

interesting looks great

[JamesV]

That really turned out nice, just finished doing a knife blade, the guys over in the knife section recommended using yellow mustard to turn the blade dark. It came out almost black.

[JJB]

That looks really nice, might have to give that a try sometime.  Thanks for sharing.
-Jay

[Lamey]

looks good John!

[fujimo]

depending on who made the head,  but a good axe is forged by using a lower carbon content steel for the main body of the axe- more malleable- and less prone to breaking- then the working edge of high carbon steel is forge welded into the head.
there are a few different processes and ways to do this. but the end result is the same.
 but if it is a high production model( like mine is!!) then it is exactly as john says- the head is all one type of high carbon steel, and the lines are just where the  working surfaces were heat treated.