can i etch a design into a blade?

[legato1]

i forged my first knife this week out of a railroad tie and was wondering if i can etch a symbol into the blade of if etching is even the best method, im also hopeing it doesent look like crap when im done..lol. im proly gonna have a hard time locating this post due to the dissabled search function but id realy appreceate the help. i tried to post a pic and i hope it works. thanks

<a href="http://s240.photobucket.com/albums/ff275/smcapp/?action=view&current=Photo81.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff275/smcapp/Photo81.jpg" border="0" alt="forged knife"></a>

 

[Steven Penner]

i forged my first knife this week out of a railroad tie

You must be a damn skilled forger- turning wooden railroad ties into steel spikes like that !

You can do a simple primitive etch that would match this blade.

Use water based paint to paint on a logo.
Use nail polish to paint the negative around the water paint.
wash off the water paint with water.

Mask off a large area aground the logo to avoid unwanted spattered etch.

Use ferric chloride, or Hydrochloric acid (toilet bowl cleaner) to etch the logo area.

When done wash in water and baking soda to neutralize.

Clean off the nail polish with acetone.

There are many many other ways too, but this should be simple and work for you.

 

[legato1]

thanks, im gonna give it a shot and post pics of finished work. sorry for not using proper railroad component terminology.

 

[SteelSlaver]

You could also cover the area you wish the etch to be on with stick on vinyl then use a razor knife to remove what you wish etched. Then use a 12 volt battery charger and connect the positive to the blade and the negative to a small piece of steel that is covered with felt. Wet the felt with heavily salted water and then press out the excess water with a sponge. Press the felt firmly to the area you want to etch for 5 seconds, remove 2 seconds press 5 seconds. 10-20 cycles. Try it on some scrap. If you hold the blade and the felt it will tingle you pretty good.

 

[stefanj]

and if you wear a ring be careful that you don't ground it out while holding the blade by getting it between the blade (with the positive charge) and the negative. I had a friend who tried to solder his finger to the positive terminal on a car that he was working on with the help of his wedding ring.

 

[kvolle]

I use a battery, two alligator clip jumpers, a cotton ball, brine or drain-o, masking tape and nail polish. Use the masking tape as a stencil and with a razor knife cut out your symbol or letters. Remove the tape in the areas you do not want etched. Use the nail polish liberally and when dry remove the masking tape that was left on. Connect the positive side of the battery to the blade via the jumper. Connect the negitive side to a jumper and connect the alligator clip to the cotton ball and soke it in either water and salt (brine) or in Drain-O. Now just wipe the cotton ball on the areas you want to etch and continue until you have the desired results. I mask off the rest of the blade to prevent etching were I don't want etching. Good Luck

 

[Big Smitty]

I just made up an etching rig. I used a 9 volt battery and a couple of alligator clips. I painted the area i wanted to etch on the blade with red finger nail polish. I let it dry for about 5 min. and then took a ball point pen and wrote my name in the finger nail polish. This scratched away the polish from the area to be etched. I then attached the positive lead to the blade and clipped the negative lead to a Q Tip about 1/2 way up the cotton area. I then disolved a heavy amount of salt into a small amount of hot water. Then dippped the Q Tip into the brine solution and dab in the area to be etched being careful not to let it run onto the unprotected blade. In about 3 to 5 minutes the etch was complete. I am going to get some stencils made at the local vinyl sign shop this week. This is really cool.