So a while back I bought some carbon steel knives from Japan.  They are cheap knives by Japans standards but they offer a great value at around $50 to $75 bucks each.

Here they are after a good cleaning.

 Not the prettiest blades but they are wicked sharp.  They are carbon steel so they require a lot of attention when being used.  They will rust up super quickly so you have to constantly wipe them off after chopping anything.  After a while they take on a natural patina from the acids in the stuff you cut.  Only problem is I keep letting my knives get a touch rusty because Im not that attentive so I end up having to scour the rust and patina off.  Sooo what do you do...

 Force a patina onto the knives!  I found this method on youtube.  1.  Mustard

2.  Bubble wrap

3. dab some mustard. 

4. dab your knives

dab dab dab

both sides.   Okay this is actually TOO much mustard.  You want a really light coating.

5.  let it sit for half an hour.

6.  Wash off mustard with a soft sponge.  Look at that!  

The vinegar in the mustard etches the blade.  Depending on how you apply the mustard you can have different patterns.   My big knife.

My Santoku

next time Im gonna try doing perfectly round polka dots or zebra stripes.  How fun is that!?  

and I bought a ton of ball jars to store crap in the pantry.  We found one bag of expensive Bomba rice infested with flour bugs.  We are really careful about ziplocking everything we have in the pantry and nothing else is infested... makes me think the bomba rice came with bugs already in it.  Anyhow to be safe I am using jars. 

and for ultimate freshness I am vacuum sealing all these goddamn jars.  Take that bugs!!!