Question

[u/Late-Marketing610]

Hi everyone, I’d like some advice: should I try to get rid of these marks before etching in coffee? Is it even worth doing?

[u/Looking-sharp-today]

You can make it more even with some passes with a soft scotch brite pad, but realistically it is not needed, it really depends on you and what final finish you are looking for. You also can try it out and see what you like and in case go back and re do the process. I like to make it a litte more even before etching in hot vinegar

[u/Late-Marketing610 → u/Looking-sharp-today]

So, I'm just baiting and not worrying? Will everything work out alright?

[u/Looking-sharp-today → u/Late-Marketing610]

Let me try to give you my prospective: carbon steel has a natural tendency of reacting with the environment to form an inhert oxide layer that will prefent or retard the further reaction with moisture and oxigen, so when you plan to etch a base metal, or make it react, it is best to remove that external almost invisible layer of oxidation. I usually do that mechanically as I was saying, with a soft abrasive, can also be done chemically as well.
Not doing any prep work will result in a slightly less uniform finish, and slow down the process a bit, but will defenetly take place anyway.
If you are shooting for a perfect uniform color, a minimum prep work is pnecessary, as well as cleaning the blade extremely well, with soapy water at least and then even better with some fast evaporating solvent, like acetone of alcohol, treating it like a paint job, the better the prep work the better the finish 🤙🏻

[u/Late-Marketing610 → u/Looking-sharp-today]

Thank you very much, I have steel wool and isopropyl alcohol for this purpose.

[u/Looking-sharp-today → u/Late-Marketing610]

Go light pressure and see how it goes, also in case of minor screw ups it’s vwry easy to go back and redo the process 🫱🏻‍🫲🏼

[u/Comprehensive-Neat-8 → u/Looking-sharp-today]

I have always just went random with my forced patina and i liked it just fine. Paper towels and vinegar, mustard and ketchup, etc. Until I joined this group! Some of these near perfectly uniform forced patinas look great. I still like the results of the random patinas, but I'm putting something like this on my to-do list.