Becker/KaBar BK-2 with Micarta Scales, Forced Patina

[Wheeler-Dealer]

I recently picked up this new BK-2 on a trade and it came with a pretty nice set of micarta scales.

I decided I wanted to strip the coating off of the blade and then "Force" a patina on it.
I used Klean Strip's Premium Stripper (around $6 with taxes).


My can looks exactly like the one on the Right.

I then took some fingernail polish and I painted 2 coats onto just the blades edges.
After that dried, I put some random drops of the fingernail polish on the blade and I took a toothpick and I drew some lines thru each drop, in all directions, in a shape similar to an *asterisk*. I did this in sort of a sweeping motion. I probably put around 20-25 drops per side and I added some very small drops on top of the spine of the blade too.

I allowed all of that to dry and I got out some bubble wrap, paper towels and Plochman's mustard (right out of the fridge).
I squeezed about a 50 cent piece-sized spot of mustard out on a piece of cardboard and I took a scrap piece of cardboard and I spread it out as thin as I could, while still leaving a thin coating on the cardboard.

Then I cut out 2 strips of bubble wrap and made it just a little bit wider and longer than the knife blade.
I took a small piece of paper towel and I rolled it up to about the size of a quarter and I lightly dabbed it into the mustard that I had spread out on the cardboard.
Next I used the paper towel to very lightly dab the mustard onto the bubble wrap.
It's very important here to make sure to put just a little bit of mustard on the bubble wrap. I made it so that you could barely see a slight yellow haze on the bubble wrap pieces.

Then I laid one piece of the mustard coated bubble wrap down with the mustard bubbles facing up, next I laid the knife onto it and then I laid the other piece of mustard coated bubble wrap onto the top of the knife.
I then placed a few small blocks of brass and other smaller sized, slightly heavy, items on top of it all, to keep some pressure on it.

I think it's important here to use 2 individual pieces of bubble wrap that are just slightly larger than your knife's blade because this allows oxygen to still get in easily which is an essential part of this whole process.
I left it on there for about 40 minutes and then I removed the knife from the bubble wrap "sandwich"...and I let it sit out in the open for another 15-20 minutes.

I removed all of the mustard on the entire blade and tang with a rag.

Then I took some rags and some fingernail polish remover and cleaned it up, then I scuffed it with some scotch brite, oiled it a few times and I achieved the effects that you see here.

Then I added a small pouch to the front side of the BK-2's Sheath.

I'm thinking that for my next mods, I may do some filework to the spine of the knife and I may do some filing to the micarta handles too.

Here are a few more pics

 

[DaKruiser]

Beautifully done!

Thanks for for taking the time to write this up and sharing it with us.

 

[bdybdall]

Didn't think I would like the results when I first started looking. I was wrong! Very nice. Thanks for the pics.

 

[Wheeler-Dealer]

Beautifully done!

Thanks for for taking the time to write this up and sharing it with us.

Didn't think I would like the results when I first started looking. I was wrong! Very nice. Thanks for the pics.

Thanks for checking it out!

I was hoping that my write-up might help others who want to achieve a similar look, who are new to modifying their knives (like myself).

I'm also hoping that maybe we can bounce other techniques back and forth, with each other, and maybe come up with even better looking forced-patina results in the future !

 

[Mgderf]

Did the mustard treatment pit the metal at all?

 

[Limpy88]

So it will still rust where u had finger nail polish right? This is mainly a cosmetic patina right?