Etching Damascus

[laffingman67]

I made a little damascus knife from a blank made by a friend. I went thru all the polishing steps, sharpened the blade and then polished all the sharpening marks off. OK now the whole knife has a nice 600 finish. So, now I figure that I will etch the blade. I had read that I could use warm lemon juice for an etchant. So I etch the blade with the lemon juice by wrapping with a paper towel and soaking it all down with the juice. I wait an hour and a half and check the blade. It etched ok except there are darker blotchy areas covering about a third of the blade. Not in one place, but all over, like a shotgun type effect. Did I not let it etch enough? because the dark blotches look ok as a finish color. I may repolish and try again.

 

[paulvallandigham]

MIght not the " Bloachy " metal you are seeing be the pattern of the steel and iron? You said your blade was begun from a blank made by a friend. That's fine, but what did his blank look like before you began working it into a blade? Try mustard on the blade for an hour or so, and see what comes up. You don't have to wrap paper towels around the blade during the process, and this may in fact be causing your " bloachiness ". Remember, Paper towels are made to absorb, not give off moisture. Vinegar is a another good mild acid to use to etch the blade. I like mustard, because everyone has some, and it does a good job of turning the iron in the blade black.

 

[laffingman67]

Yea, the paper towel is probly why it messed up. I used it because I didn't have enough to submerge the blade in it and thought the towel would kind of hold it on. :youcrazy:
I will give the mustard a try! Thanks!

 

[Tinker2]

Etchant Solution, from Radio Shack, is what I use.[url] http://www.radioshack.com/search/index.jsp?kwCatId=&kw=etch&origkw=ETCH&sr=1[/url]

Tinker2

 

[wildeagle]

Ranger, I,ve played around with a little damascus and etched mine with Mountain Dew. It might be the citric acid in the soda that bites the metal. It's fairly cheap so you can submerge the whole blade, left mine in overnite.

The top knife in the second pic isn't pattern welded steel.

 

[mckutzy]

nuf said.....do the dew.... mannnn....... wow that some results with just pop, what propmted u to try mountain dew?

 

[wildeagle]

I was using lemon juice and wanted to cover the whole blade, but I guess I watered it down to much and it wasn't cutting it, so to speak. There was 1/2 litre bottle of dew ( warm ) in the shop and thought what the heck. I knew soda had a lot of acid in it soooooo... , just got lucky. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. I guess it ranks up there with mustard? But then I started to think if it does that to metal what's it do to your stomach? I personally like coke but thats probablly not any better for your belly!

 

[laffingman67]

I polished the blotches out and tried again. This time I used home made vinegar with some lemon juice and brown mustard thrown in. I used about everything acidic in my fridge! :rotf: Didn't put any of the wify's home made hot salsa in it though, that stuff is too good to waste! :haha: I submerged the blade in it and it started working immediately. It was starting to etch after only 5 minutes. I left it in for a total of about a half hour. The blade turned out great! I will post some pics as soon as I get a chance. Thank you all for your great advice. On a side note, I did go to radio shack before I tried the first time and they didn't have any and had not for several years! :rotf: I guess no one does any hobby board etching any more. :blah:

 

[laffingman67]

BTW, nice knives, Wild Eagle! :hatsoff:

You too, Tinker! :hatsoff:

 

[paulvallandigham]

Didn't you put pennies in a capful of Coke when you were a kid to see how fast the penny was cleaned? These soft drinks contain a lot of acid. For people with bad stomachs, pop is one of the first things you need to stop putting down your throat.

 

[mckutzy]

i see you live in the states, im wondering if there is any diference in the making of the pop from up north here to down south where u are....mmmm..... i wonder.. i do know there is a difference in other stuff like caffine but the acid content :hmm:

great results tho, i definatly like it.