Subduing wood and metal.. thoughts?

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Leahcim
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Re: Suduing wood and metal.. thoughts?

Post by Leahcim »

Tons of wood dyes you can use from natural and primitive to modern..... Personally when I am fletching Woodies I don't use stains but water based dyes..... Makes for a much prettier shafting in whatever color by not covering the wood grain like a stain tends to do.....

As far as force patinas on metals there are literally thousands of ways to darken carbon steels and iron and bronze/coppers etc.... About the only problematic metals would be gold and modern stainless...

Probably the easiest and super readily available source today and then would be vinegar...but anything mildly acidic will work...(onions also work a treat and raw or rare cooked meats leave some beautiful purple's)

Matter of fact.... Forcing a patina and the buildup of black and blue oxides helps protect steels from the red fuzzy bad oxides(rust) and is pretty common way to stream and help protect carbon steels... Will post some pics when I get home and can upload some things to Photobucket
Leahcim
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Re: Suduing wood and metal.. thoughts?

Post by Leahcim »

Here are a few example of forced patinas I have done to my gear... Also another easy and accurate way of darkening wood is to torch it.... I torch vs dying/staining most of my wooden "tools" then seal with boiled linseed oil.... Which is also accurate for the timeframe.... Heated wood also hardens the wood and helps make it tougher....
Something else to consider is.... If the metal or wood is polished it doesn't help.... Shiny will still reflect light you want a nice satin or matted finish to help as well if you really want it subdued for stealthy reasons.....

Here is my "pocket knife" it has a flat grind for the edge and is used for light cordage and whittling and kindling jobs and anywhere else a small sharp precise blade is needed..

It started life as an Opinel no9 with Carbon blade
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Then I did a awesome forced patina using an onion..
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Reshaped burned and then sealed the handle
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As you can see it turned out nice and dark...

Here is my main camp knife... It started as a coldsteel Bushman.... I stripped the black epoxy coat off the blade and then did a forced patina with mustard and vinegar..
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It also came out nice and subdued and interesting

Next is just a picture of my camp hawk and shovel after reworking the hawk and patina the head and then burned and sealed the handles with boiled linseed oil...
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There are so many fun and period correct ways of doing these things it is really a hobby all by itself!!!!!

Also.... Sorry for the wall of pics lol
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Taylor Steiner
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Re: Suduing wood and metal.. thoughts?

Post by Taylor Steiner »

That knife really turned out nice! I like it!
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Leahcim
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Re: Suduing wood and metal.. thoughts?

Post by Leahcim »

TaylorSteiner wrote:That knife really turned out nice! I like it!

Which one??? And thanks!!!!
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Taylor Steiner
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Re: Suduing wood and metal.. thoughts?

Post by Taylor Steiner »

Oh yeah that opinel it's cool!
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Leahcim
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Re: Suduing wood and metal.. thoughts?

Post by Leahcim »

TaylorSteiner wrote:Oh yeah that opinel it's cool!
Thanks! I love the way it turned out! That onion patina really looks nice and now I have the lockring reinstalled and the handle buffed out nice it's turned into a perfect knife for making kindling and cutting small cordage around camp, or whittling out that pot hanger for cooking. For 15 bucks and a couple hours of tinkering around it's pretty hard to beat...

The Bushman knife is a pretty substantial blade as well... I know it looks kinda small in the pictures but I just have big mitts... It's got a 6.5 inch blade that's pretty tough and is about 12.25 inches overall... It's beefy enough to baton through wood if you need to split some limbs yet super lightweight.... Also doubles down as a pretty effective hunting spear in a pinch with it's hollow handle too.... And for 25 bucks or less it's pretty hard to beat with a little work to make it look not so modern...
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Taylor Steiner
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Re: Suduing wood and metal.. thoughts?

Post by Taylor Steiner »

Very nice! I've had quite a few blades from cold steel my self. Maybe I need a spear now...hmmm
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Greg
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Re: Suduing wood and metal.. thoughts?

Post by Greg »

In thinking about dyeing arrow shafts, I've chosen to give it a try with my latest batch I'm working on. To that end, today I lightly buffed two dozen shafts, cut nocks into all of them, and did a cap dip on the first dozen in the leftovers from my last Walnut bath, which goes about 4-5" up from the nock end. Then, fletching with 5" shield cuts gives me a nice artistic overlap between the cap dip and the bare shaft. The dye creeps up the shaft a little, and leaves a slightly darker seam at the edge of the dye, which I love. I haven't thread wrapped these yet, but we're on our way. The benefit on topic is that, in my quiver, they're quite nicely subtle, but when they come out/are shot, I have something lighter than my surrounds to help find them if needs be.
Arrows_2019.jpg
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Ursus
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Re: Suduing wood and metal.. thoughts?

Post by Ursus »

Greg wrote:In thinking about dyeing arrow shafts, I've chosen to give it a try with my latest batch I'm working on. To that end, today I lightly buffed two dozen shafts, cut nocks into all of them, and did a cap dip on the first dozen in the leftovers from my last Walnut bath, which goes about 4-5" up from the nock end. Then, fletching with 5" shield cuts gives me a nice artistic overlap between the cap dip and the bare shaft. The dye creeps up the shaft a little, and leaves a slightly darker seam at the edge of the dye, which I love. I haven't thread wrapped these yet, but we're on our way. The benefit on topic is that, in my quiver, they're quite nicely subtle, but when they come out/are shot, I have something lighter than my surrounds to help find them if needs be.Arrows_2019.jpg
Solid thinking as always. Looks great! What are you using for shafts?
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Greg
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Re: Suduing wood and metal.. thoughts?

Post by Greg »

I scored a bundle of ~250 shafts from a consignment shop for ten bucks a few years ago. I believe they're cedar, but they've been sitting so long they don't really have an odor anymore. Definitely not heavy enough to be ash. They're shooting great, though!
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Elleth
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Re: Suduing wood and metal.. thoughts?

Post by Elleth »

Wow!

I am going to have to try this whole walnut-on-wood thing you guys have managed to work out - it looks great!

... I like how the fletching matches. :)
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Greg
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Re: Suduing wood and metal.. thoughts?

Post by Greg »

Elleth wrote:I like how the fletching matches. :)
I do too, which is of course a color that 3Rivers has discontinued, which I only bought a small pack of to test. *grumble*
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Re: Subduing wood and metal.. thoughts?

Post by Iodo »

They look amazing :P
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