damascus etching

J

jakesblades

Joined
Oct 30, 2005
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24
I am building my first liner lock folder and am using damascus bolsters. I finished them and preped them for etching. I have a problem in that they etched a gray color rather than black. I have never had this problem with damascus. They have not been heat treated. Could this be the problem? The acid in new. I used this same acid to do several blades that came out very nice. Any ideas out there????????? Thanks
 
I think it may be because there not heat treated....I could be wrong but thats my gut feeling. HAng in there because others will chime in.
 
I age with chlorox but etch with ferric. Can he ht treat them since he has shaped them?
 
Yep, heat treat them first and they will etch better. This is one reason why I don't care for differentially heat treated damascus blades. I don't like to see the way it etches differently.
 
As already said They do need to be hardened to etch dark. Brownells has a product called PBC (non scaling compound) that will allow you to heat them without needing to grind the scale off afterward. Or you could just buff them and leave them bright and not heat treat them. Bluing is another consideration.
 
One other option, if you were to throw them in an oven and bake them, it will darken a bit, and get a tint from light straw to blue depending on time and temp.
 
Here are some that I heated up nice and hot, dunked in water, did a long etch on until I saw bare metal in the high spots, then hot blued using a small cooking torch. The effect looks awesome!
3.jpg
 
Heres a closer pic. Its Chris Marks bolster damascus, not blade steel so he makes it to etch and color differently.

2.jpg
 
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