All About Pocket Knives

Are there any American made Spyderco's that will take a patina? I think the Manix will but I don't
think it's American made.

if its carbon steel it will patina.... if its stainless, it will not by traditional means unless u buy some special stuff to do it.

Yeah but which ones? I think only a few are American made and I don't know
which of the steels they use are carbon. I guess i don't know all the names and
initials.

Check Here!


http://www.spyderco.com/catalog/index.php

http://zknives.com/knives/articles/knifesteelfaq.shtml

This is a REALLY really awesome resource for knife steels and knives in general. On that page steels are listed in the categories of stainless and carbon steels. Check out the list and match it up with the blade material

In the AISI steel designation system, 10xx is carbon steel, any other steels are alloy steels. For example, the 50xx series are chromium steels.

In the SAE designation system, steels with letter designations (e.g., W-2, A2) are tool steels.

There is an ASM classification system as well, but it isn't seen often in the discussion of cutlery steels, so I'll ignore it for now. Often, the last numbers in the name of a steel are fairly close to the steel's carbon content. So 1095 is ~.95% carbon. 52100 is ~1.0% carbon. 5160 is ~.60% carbon.

the only mention i've found to really darken stainless other than a coating process is to use the old formula of nitric & hydrochloric acids. i've forgot the proportions but did several in the 80s. watch with caution the nitric since merely fumes can darken the hand skin. i used a double coat of acrylic nail polish the protect the edge bevels.--HiPower

The CPM-M4 Gayle Bradley and the Caly 3.5 Super Blue are both carbon and will take a patina nicely. The D2 Paramilitary will also.

Also, any of the knives that sport ZDP-189 will "patina" in a sense.

ZDP-189 is a super steel that hods a crazy scalpel-sharp edge for a verrrry long time, but is really tough to re-sharpen - almost worth sending it back to Sal & Co. for an annual touch up.

I say "patina in a sense" because the steel will discolor a bit, turns a bit bronze-ish as I understand it, but ZDP-189 is generally delivered as the center layer of a veneer steel, with a more corrosion resitant (eg. 420J) steel layered on either side of it.

I have a Caly 3 in ZDP-189 and it is a scary sharp knife - even by Spyderco standards ... mine hasn't developed much patina yet (3 months), but I understand if you expose it to food acids (tomatos, apples, etc) that it will ...