Spyderco Acid etching H1 steel in ferric chloride

[lukiefer]

DO NOT DO IT. It will be okay for the first couple hours and I figured it would take a while so I had a friend over, had a few drinks and forgot ab the blade in the acid (admittedly my own fault). When I remembered it was ab 5.5/6 hours into the etching process and my blade had been destroyed with massive pitting. Fortunately I have 4 (well now 3 lol) spyderco salt knives with H1 steel and picked my least favorite and least used to experiment with the corrosion resistant blade.

 

[kreole]

Sounds less like a "do not do it" and more of a "don't leave it in for hours". When I did it, it was minutes.

 

[lukiefer]

Sounds less like a "do not do it" and more of a "don't leave it in for hours". When I did it, it was minutes.

With H1 steel? I call bs. I left it in there for an hour and cleaned it off, it was still shining like new so I put it back in and checked at 2 hours, cleaned off and same result, still looked brand new. Then I put it back and forgot I had it soaking. Not to mention that it didn’t even darken the blade like ferric chloride is supposed to do, it only pitted out.