copper tainted Ferric chloride

Charlie Lewis

Charlie Lewis

Joined
Nov 14, 2010
Messages
84
I etched some wrought iron in my ferric chloride. The Wrought iron had some copper inclusions or layers., now everything I put into my ferric chloride comes out copper plated. By the time I rub the copper off I am just about back where I started.

Is there some sacrificial metal that I can put into my ferric chloride to gather up the copper, or is there a way to precipitate the copper out? Is there anyway to fix it or should I get some more.

Charlie
 
My FCL is also copper tainted but it works just fine. Your mix might be a bit too strong. Try diluting it 4 parts water and 1 part FCL.
 
Yea I dont think your getting the copper out. Just leave it as is and get another FC tank going. I occasionally use my contaminated one to get cool copper accents on certain knives I make, sometimes it looks nice.
CW
 
I have a few tanks that are contaminated. One with stainless, one copper and one ownknown. All do neat things and I cant bring myself to getting rid of them.
 
if you want to fix it, seems steel takes the copper from the solution. Add steel and let it sit until no new copper is plating out.
 
Cool did not know that happens, post up some pics would love to see how that looks!
 
How can i contaminate my ferric tank?( : Just throw a couple chunks of copper in it?If it puts color on the damascus,id like to try that.
 
Seals said:
How can i contaminate my ferric tank?( : Just throw a couple chunks of copper in it?If it puts color on the damascus,id like to try that.
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Copper wire readily available.

Cool thought! Hopefully you'd get only part of the damascus plated in electroless copper!
 
Yup just throw in a bit of copper. Does not need to be much. In fact you might just etch a piece of wire for a few seconds and see what it does. Too much might be the OPs problem with his etch.
 
knife9.jpg



As you can see only one was done with the contaminated FC. Had alot of people ask how I did that. Can be a cool look IMO.
 
I did an etch on a wrought guard and spacer that did a similar thing. Turned out really nice. I did not get any good pics of it before I sent it off to the owner though. Looks like an antique knife that has had some of the plating rub off. The new owner was very happy with the outcome.
 
Saw a short sword made on another forum that had copper accents like that. He etched the damascus blade very deeply with clean ferric acid to give it a more rustic look, then dipped it quickly into a copper-tainted tank. The copper was left in the deep ravines when he sanded/polished the high spots. Looked great with the copper handle accents.

I've always wondered if you could do the same with gold. A cheap ring is easily found and damascus or wrought iron with light gold accents would look awesome!
 
Heres some shots of a little piece of alabama damascus, spalted maple, copperplated with tainted f/c, display is oosik tip mounted on rough quartz base, I added some brass to the f/c and it really gives a unique etch that seems to be durable, ive started to think about adding some low dc current to the mix see if that will increase plating thickness? Its a cool unique look fer sur. Thanks for the inspiration to keep my "tainted" f/c charlie! GHaile
 

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GTH11 said:
Heres some shots of a little piece of alabama damascus, spalted maple, copperplated with tainted f/c, display is oosik tip mounted on rough quartz base, I added some brass to the f/c and it really gives a unique etch that seems to be durable, ive started to think about adding some low dc current to the mix see if that will increase plating thickness? Its a cool unique look fer sur. Thanks for the inspiration to keep my "tainted" f/c charlie! GHaile
Click to expand...

I do work for a film/x-ray chemical company. They recover the silver from the used processing chemical by running a metal paddle through the fluid with a small dc charge running through the paddle. The tank looks like a big ice cream mixer. I've dipped copper in the chemical and pulled it out all shiny with silver.
Pics don't do the copper highlights justice. Nicely done Greg!
 
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