Well, not that kind of ageing! Can't do anything about that.
I have aged several pieces of gun barrel, locks, but mostly blades. Some really nice pitting, IMHO. Now on some, like my favorite double edged bowie the temper line or hamon [sp?] [I know colonial bladesmiths did not do Japanese blades, but hey!] The differential tempering treatment left a double line on the bowie. Very, very cool looking. The pitting was a gradient too. Nice.
However, back to the topic. Quenching and tempering a blade last night for a sgian dhu with burled cherry handle. Soaked the darn blade almost, in solution. I was expecting a fantastic 1725 look a like finish as I took the steel wool to it.
No!
Color variation was superb. But almost no pitting at all! Bleach, cold blue, barrel brown and salted the living heck out of it. But nary a pit on the thing. I know I did not draw the blade back a lot.
Here is the hypothesis. I have noticed that the harder the edge the less the blade will "take".
Suggestions?
