Does Acid Washing Damage the Integrity of the Knife?

I just bought some muriatic acid this past weekend trying to clean up some bricks and mortar. Having never used this stuff, not sure of the results. Did a quick search if the muratic acid could be used to etch a blade or handle and then I stumbled upon this thread. I thought why not give it a go. I soaked a clip from a cheap box cutter in the acid for 15 minutes after cleaning with some alcohol, then neutralized the acid with baking soda. This is the new environmentally safer variety and seems to be pretty weak. See the below results.







 
Stainless steel pocketclips are gonna be pretty resistant to weaker concentrations. I can tell you that radioshack FeCL etchant will turn a polished benchmade SS clip into a rough surface black finish similar in appearance to parkerizing in a relatively short period of time. It's been over 10 years since I've done that so I can't remember if it was a matter of minutes or hours. Edit: I think that clip may be chrome plated as well, that would have a big effect on etching.
 
Highly polished pocket clips will change in Radio Shack pcb in a matter of minutes.

The only things that I don't like about etching is that it will dull your knife (without a resist) and that it makes sharpening cornered spines sharper. At least it did on my CS tuff. I round a lot of my spines anyway though.
 
PCB will darken stainless very quickly, too quickly as most cut with water unless going for near black. I used muriatic as I just bought it to clean brick and mortar and it will work but takes considerably longer. I also acid etched and then stone washed my JYD II clip. Total soak time was two hours. Stone washing by hand took only a few minutes. I am happy with my results.

To the OP, as the clip was bead blasted and I did not remove the finish (only cleaned with alcohol), the acid was somewhat inconsistent. If soaked for longer would have been darker and maybe more consistent.



 
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