? Electro etching a pattern onto the blade, not makers mark.

[MT Borg]

I was wondering if anyone has electro etched a pattern or design into the blades full length like that is done with vinegar, mustard or acid. Am thinking a recurring design could become a recognizable makers pattern. I did a search but did not come up with anything. Any examples? Thank you

 

[Atlas Knife Company]

Like this?

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

David Boye and Francine have made a name for themselves with etched blades. His book on knifemaking deals with the process.
http://www.francineetchedknives.com/product_info.php?cPath=91&products_id=907

Usually you mask the blade and then acid etch the pattern in.
The "faux" layered steel Japanese blades on the market are a mono-steel with the Damascus pattern etched in. Some of these are big name brand knives, too. This is just an etched pattern:
http://shun.kaiusaltd.com/knives/knife/classic-pro-8-1-4-in-deba

 

[69_knives]

The technique, I imagine, would be similar to glass etching - use a rubberized material that you paint on to mask the areas you don't want etched and then etch in an acid.

 

[Atlas Knife Company]

A quick set of instructions, feel free to ask for more details.
1. Paint finished blade with spray paint, two coats works best.
2. Carefully scratch off your design with a needle, scribe, etc.
3. Fill the container with water and add about 1/4 cup salt, mix well
4. Attach negative lead to a piece of metal and place in one side of a small bucket or glass
5. Attach positive lead to the knife. This is the trick part, because it needs to NOT be in the water and any part of the knife you DON'T want etched needs to be either out of the water or coated with paint.
6. Attach your leads to a D-cell battery.
7. Come back in 30 minutes and it will be done
8. Remove the paint


Here are the directions I originally followed:
http://www.navaching.com/forge/etching.html

 

[HallHandmade]

Usually you mask the blade and then acid etch the pattern in.
The "faux" layered steel Japanese blades on the market are a mono-steel with the Damascus pattern etched in. Some of these are big name brand knives, too. This is just an etched pattern:
http://shun.kaiusaltd.com/knives/knife/classic-pro-8-1-4-in-deba

Normally I would be a bit critical of something like that, but I can see a practical use in reducing contact area for lower drag cuts.

I don't know if you ever saw that Kershaw folder with the flutes ground into the blade. I used a friend's to slice cheese a couple years ago, and it worked amazingly well. I've also noticed that the junky "ginsu" type kitchen knives work very well for cheese, because the ground serrations reduce contact area and binding, and the chunky bevel forces the cheese away from the top of the blade.

I have wanted to make an "ultimate cheese knife" for quite a while, and until now have been thinking about machining or grinding to create a reduced surface area pattern on the blade, but deep etching could be a great alternative.

 

[Omega Leather Works]

David Boye and Francine have made a name for themselves with etched blades. His book on knifemaking deals with the process.
http://www.francineetchedknives.com/product_info.php?cPath=91&products_id=907

Usually you mask the blade and then acid etch the pattern in.
The "faux" layered steel Japanese blades on the market are a mono-steel with the Damascus pattern etched in. Some of these are big name brand knives, too. This is just an etched pattern:
http://shun.kaiusaltd.com/knives/knife/classic-pro-8-1-4-in-deba

They at least clearly state that it's an acid etch on the Shun. That, and it looks nothing like folded steel to me.

Ian, have you tried those skeletonized cheese knives? Can't remember who makes the one I'm thinking of. Opinel maybe, but they look useful. I'm a cheesemaker for Kraft, but we use giant drums that have teeth shaped like a sharks to cut the stuff. I also use machete sized Dexter Russell (industrial) knives to cut soft cheddar, and hard parm. Don't bother looking at those. They have the magic quality of being chippy (don't worry, we're very good at keeping the product safe) while being extremely soft at the same time.

On topic, nail polish works well as a resist against ferric chloride too. I get pretty crisp edges. Candle wax too if you just want to make some spots. A light sanding after etching really looks nice.

A guy in the maintenance forum posted pics of a knife that he did African scenes on. It was really quite lovely and artful.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Sorry, I didn't mean to say that Shun is passing it off as layered steel/Damascus....but many Internet sales Chinese knives and swords are made with the blade done this way. Same goes for the "hamon" on some of these blades.

To get the look of those Shun blades try this.
Preform the blade, grind the basic bevel, but don't sand it beyond 120 grit, and sand the upper flat to 220 grit.
Get some colored lacquer. Put a little bit in a 3oz. paper cup. Carefully drizzle it on the cleaned blade surface in a pattern. Remember the Spirograph pictures you made as a little kid (am I dating myself here?).Try loops, zig-zags, thin to thick lines, irregular splotches, etc. Go slow and pour a very thin stream, as it will spread out a bit. When it looks right, let it dry. You can practice on a sheet of aluminum foil or cardboard. If the blade does not look right, clean it off well with lacquer thinner and then wash it...and start again. Everywhere the paint is will be unetched, and will end up higher than the etched, exposed metal areas.

Once the first side is dry, do the other side. Now, paint all surfaces you don't want etched with some of the paint - the tang, main bevel, makers mark oval/square area, etc.

An alternate method is to use a small sable brush to paint the patterns on the surface. With some practice you can paint on Kanji marks, names, silhouettes, and pretty much any pattern you want.


When all is dry, acid etch in aqua regia or use FC. To get a deep etch, you may have to take it out every now and then and hose it off...then put back in the etchant.

 

[GHEzell]

Thanks for that, I'm going to try this method when I have the time.

A quick set of instructions, feel free to ask for more details.
1. Paint finished blade with spray paint, two coats works best.
2. Carefully scratch off your design with a needle, scribe, etc.
3. Fill the container with water and add about 1/4 cup salt, mix well
4. Attach negative lead to a piece of metal and place in one side of a small bucket or glass
5. Attach positive lead to the knife. This is the trick part, because it needs to NOT be in the water and any part of the knife you DON'T want etched needs to be either out of the water or coated with paint.
6. Attach your leads to a D-cell battery.
7. Come back in 30 minutes and it will be done
8. Remove the paint


Here are the directions I originally followed:
http://www.navaching.com/forge/etching.html

 

[Diez Knives]

I etched this design, took me 6 hours to make.

 

[Omega Leather Works]

Hey that's pretty cool. I like how deep the etching is. The after treatment looks great too. :thumbup:

 

[Atlas Knife Company]

Definitely what I would call a success.