Staining stainless

[Pignut]

Can it be done?

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[decorum]

What do you mean by staining? Permanent recolouring to a pre chosen hue / shade or discolouring through use which proper cleaning doesn't remove?

Permanent discolouring is easy enough to achieve

 

[Pignut]

I want to patina a knife with stainless blade (if that helps)

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[hog]

Some grades of s/s do tarnish, depending on the ammount of chromium in them, most knives are 440 but not sure how the grade works.

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

Blueing and heat marks may come about from heat treatment but you may get undesirable effects eg losing hardness

 

[hog]

Does s/s loose its hardness, thought that what it is ,is how it stays , again not sure, interested to hear though.

 

[Imagedude]

Special tablets available from British Blades, but I think they sold out early this month.

http://www.britishblades.com/forums/showthread.php?21333-damascus-tablets&highlight=mosaic+tablets

 

[British Red]

Easily done with cold gun blue - whether its the patina you want is a different matter, but you can certainly stain stainless

 

[ForgeCorvus]

Does s/s loose its hardness, thought that what it is ,is how it stays , again not sure, interested to hear though.

S/S is not just one alloy.
'Stainless' ("Doesn't rust" would be a little closer to the truth) is just one property that a range of steel alloys have, 440 is just one of them

You can get S/S with high to very carbon content

Never heat a blade in anything except boiling water if you want to retain whatever hardening & tempering its been given