Acid etching advice

[mick91]

Any knife makers out there know about acid etching? Ive decided to have a crack at it as well as scaling a knife. I intend when I've had a little practice to do it from a decent quality blank but for now have ordered a couple of these...

As for less than £4 I don't mind if they turn out a bit shoddy as a practice. Have some decent handling materials including bone, nicely figured woods and antler. Are there any pitfalls to acid etching I should know about? I will be using ferric chloride solution unless anyone knows of better acids to use. I have access to pretty much any chems I need too within reason so if dilute sulphuric, nitric anything like that works better I can try it.

 

[Justa1098]

make sure its clean before you start. often better to warm the blank a little. remember etched blades rust quickly so i always give mine a good wipe in wd4o

 

[mick91]

make sure its clean before you start. often better to warm the blank a little. remember etched blades rust quickly so i always give mine a good wipe in wd4o

Any particular cleaner? I'm guessing a general decreasing agent possibly acetone? And good point on rusting never even considered that.

 

[mountainm]

They're not stainless are they?

 

[mick91]

They're not stainless are they?

Not according to the seller no

 

[mountainm]

Not according to the seller no

Cool. Usually the very cheap ones seem to be these days. If they're 01 they're a bit of a bargain.

 

[mick91]

Cool. Usually the very cheap ones seem to be these days. If they're 01 they're a bit of a bargain.

If they're actually any good I'll be pleasantly surprised. In fairness another Anglo arms knife I bought claimed to be stainless (525?) and was both magnetic and has corroded. Doesn't sound much like any stainless I've ever herd of

 

[mountainm]

If they're actually any good I'll be pleasantly surprised. In fairness another Anglo arms knife I bought claimed to be stainless (525?) and was both magnetic and has corroded. Doesn't sound much like any stainless I've ever herd of

The other one I saw said 440C. Although my hultafors HVK was only £4 and is carbon steel.

 

[mick91]

Can't complain for the price really it makes you wonder how they make them so cheap. Even if they turn out to be stainless as I said I do have acess to some chemicals that will make very short work of it. Just didn't want it to eat the blade too much

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[mick91]

Electrochemical etching works on stainless though does it not?

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