Best Etching Method for Cable?

Peter Atwood

Peter Atwood

Joined
Oct 26, 2000
Messages
2,468
Indian George was kind enough to invite me down for a day of forging recently and I got some sweet cable billets. My attempts at etching however, have not been fantastic. I tried a 50-50 mix of water and ferric and got a weak pattern, kinda greyed out. How can I increase the contrast in the material. The billets look great BTW, in every other way. Thank you IG!! :)
 
Peter,Remeber that cable is all the same kind of metal and so you won't get a real bright contrast.I give mine a deep etch then a light buff or hand sand with 600 grit paper (only hitting the highs) and that is about as good a contrast as I can get..
Hope this helps a little..
Bruce
 
Peter,
I have the same problem. The best way is to etch the blade for 10 min, neutralize it and then give it a light buff with some grey and then white polishing compound. If you buff it too much you will wash out the pattern. Just a couple of light passes. Experiment. Indian George cold blues his blades and then buffs them to bring out the silver streaks inthe pattern.
Hope this helps,
Chuck
 
Peter; Chuck is correct. I use 50/50 acid and vinegar. Put in the mix 15 minutes clean it off and do it again, I did it 3 times and tool black them then light sanded with 1500 grit and buffed.
 
Try a weaker etching solution and longer etching times. With the stronger solutions all parts of the blade etch at the same rate but a weaker solution; 4 or five parts water and one part ferric, seems to help bring out the pattern better. Also I can't get a real clear pattern until after hardening.
 
Peter if this is what your looking for, do like B. Burke said. 5 to 1 mix and after every 10 minutes I would lightly sand with 2000 grit and then etch again for another 10 min, it took 4 etching peroids but you can see how it turned out. I also had this blade sanded to a mirror finish before I started the etch. After the last 2000 grit sanding I lightly buffed with a soft wheel and green compound.

Hope this helps

Bill
 
Thanks Peter & GM

Chris, I don't give my 1095 blades time to etch between hardening and tempering, I had a blade that I quenched and was going to bring another up to heat and quench and the first one cracked while messing with the 2nd one, this cable make up is 1095 according to the manufacture so I treat as I would 1095 regular stock, I heat my oven to desired temp and then quench, let the whole blade slow cool in the quenchent for just a few minutes and then pop it in the oven, haven't had any problems since I started doing it that way. I know we all have different techniques, this is just how I do it.
Bruce, I've got some 1 1/2" cable that the manufacture says is made up of 1060 + 1090 combined,I haven't tried it yet but when I do I'll post a pic if it looks any different.

Bill
 
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