u/Ikigai321

I decided to put a forced coffee patina on my Chromax Shibata Boss Nakiri and Sukenari HAP40 Gyuto. Brewed some strong instant coffee and left them in there for about 5 hours. I think they turned out really cool. While the HAP40 got a dark greyish colour the Chromax turned into somewhat of a rainbow.

Interestingly this result differs quite a bit from previous patinas on the same steels that I did. For comparison my Yoshikane SKD extra tall gyuto and HAP40 Sukenari Kiritsuke. The SKD (which should be the same as Chromax if I'm not mistaken) turned into a really vivid blue and the HAP40 into a light brownish colour.

Not quite sure why this is. Maybe due to different heat treatment by the makers? Maybe the second Sukenari got darker due to the different blend of instant coffee I used.

- Chromax Boss Nakiri 170 mm

- SG2 Boss Bunka 220 mm

I picked up these two beauties on my current trip to Japan. Could not decide which one I liked more and the price seemed to good to pass on them. Might sell one after I used them for a bit and made up my mind. I am usually more of a Sanjo grind fan but read so much good stuff on Shibata's lasery work here that I had to try for myself.

Both are mighty tall with the Nakiri having around 4 mm more in height. Interestingly the straight part of the spine is almost identical in lengh. Chromax/SKD is one of my favorite steels and I will for sure put a nice blue forced patina on the edge of the Nakiri. Comment if you are interested to see it.

Cheers from Sapporo 😊✌🏻