Better hamon observance, contaminate etchant

Mark Williams

Mark Williams

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I have been making of all things,a copper palm tree for a friend. He wants one for the top of an old weathervane. I finished up the trunk of the tree and decided to etch it for a quick patina. It looked fantastic. It made it look like it had been weathered for years.
So last night I finished the heat treat on a large skinner. I threw the blade into my copper contaminated etch for about an hour. When I pulled it out the entire blade was copper coated. I could just rub away the copper under running water accept for the hardened area of the blade. I even scrubbed the blade with a brillo pad and you can still see the copper hamon. Needless to say I now have a tupperware container marked "Copper and Brass only" I kind of like the effect.I might just go ahead and use copper pins and hardware.

Mark
 
Mark,Mine does this all the time,You can buff the copper color off if you need to.Cleston Synyard used to put copper shavings in his etchant years ago to give his Damascus some color,Give it a try,it can give a really cool effect to a Damadcus blade.
Bruce
 
Good to know. I'm a big fan of steel with copper hardware anyways, so this would give an even better/more interesting look to knives like that. Guess it's time I start etching too. Man, too much to do. :)
 
Bob Terzuola mentions this in his book, and says brass does the same thing. Has anyone tried it with brass, or brass in combination with copper?
 
Yes Brass and Nickel Silver do the same,Both are actually copper based anyway....I have all them in my ferric chloride now.
Bruce
 
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