Acid washed, now vertical blade play

celtic11

celtic11

Joined
Dec 28, 2012
Messages
611
Well just like the title states.. I acid washed the blade and clip of my thermite and now I have a ton of vertical blade play and basically 100& lockup. What would cause this and is there any way I can fix it?
 
did you cover the lock face before you put it in the etchant? more than likely some of the material from the lock face was removed causing the late lock up and up/down play. The only real way to fix it is to add a larger stop pin. Considering the time and possibly the cost of tooling, I think it would make more sense to buy another one. :(
 
Its important to protect the pivot and lock interface of the blade when you're doing any acid wash. Most people use bright nail polish so its easy to see. Did you do this?

If those areas aren't protected the action and lockup are affected since the acid eats away the blade where tight tolerances are important.
I wonder if carbidizing the lockbar would help at all at this point? I'm not sure it would be enough but its worth a shot.
 
spketch said:
Its important to protect the pivot and lock interface of the blade when you're doing any acid wash. Most people use bright nail polish so its easy to see. Did you do this?

If those areas aren't protected the action and lockup are affected since the acid eats away the blade where tight tolerances are important.
I wonder if carbidizing the lockbar would help at all at this point? I'm not sure it would be enough but its worth a shot.
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Thanks the answer fellas.

I didn't do any of that. Thought I knew what I was doing and jumped the gun. I wonder if Kershaw would send me a new blade for $10 like they do if it breaks.
 
I forgot Kershaw did reblades. They will absolutely change it out for you if you send the knife back with the fee. Probably best to do that and try again with the new blade.
 
spketch said:
I forgot Kershaw did reblades. They will absolutely change it out for you if you send the knife back with the fee. Probably best to do that and try again with the new blade.
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Do you think they would still do that after I did all this?

6KOp0bo.jpg
 
I don't see why not. Even if you voided the warranty, you're paying for the new blade so I'd be surprised if they refused you.
 
spketch said:
I don't see why not. Even if you voided the warranty, you're paying for the new blade so I'd be surprised if they refused you.
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Ok thanks. I'll probably give them a call Monday and see what they say. My concern is a know many times they don't stock all of the parts on the chinese knives. I'll report back on Monday. Kind of bummed because I think they knife came out pretty neat.
 
greenadam29 said:
What was your process im new an interested to hear it
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For the acid washing I bout PCB etchant from Radio Shack. I took all the parts I wanted acid washed and placed them in a bowl and covered them with the solution. For me this included the blade, pivot, stop pin, lock bar stabilizer and screw, pocket clip and screws. I should have protected the lock face of the blade and probably left the stop pin out entirely. I just wanted to get rid of all the silver.

For the bronze on the lock side I just disassembled the knife completely and laid the bare lock side on two sockets to hold it up. Then I used my mapp gas torch and heated the lock side evenly until I got the color i wanted. . Then did the same thing to the steel liner on the other side.
 
You can also mask areas you don't want etched with Sharpie. Just draw a thick layer of it onto the steel. I do the end of the tang, areas around the pivot, and edge bevels of my blades like that before I put them in the etchant. Probably doesn't work as well as nail polish, but I've had okay results with it so far. :thumbup:
 
If anyone is interested I just got off the phone with Kershaw and she said to send it in along with $10 and they will replace the blade for me.
 
What a great service! A lot of other companies and you'd be out a knife. Nice cheap learning experience. Next time ask for tips before hand, plenty of people here are happy to help. :)
 
spketch said:
What a great service! A lot of other companies and you'd be out a knife. Nice cheap learning experience. Next time ask for tips before hand, plenty of people here are happy to help. :)
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Lol yeah I did ask for tips but then I waited like a month before doing this and forgot one step haha.
 
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