I'll save the long boring details and just show what the results were:
What:
Ka-Bar ZK Acheron
How:
Q-tips
12V/1Amp AC adapter with gator clips attached
Super salty water (almost a brine with aquarium salt)
Fingernail polish
Masking tape
x-acto blade
Acetone
I started by making the "mark" aka: skull design by drawing it with a pen on some white artist's tape.
Cut it out with the #11 x-acto and applied to the blade and masked rest of blade with tape.
Burned the crap out of it. Seriously, steam, sizzle, popping and a nice "ozone" smell.
Created the "splotchy" look with fingernail polish (some super random cheap stuff I found). Let it set and then went to work with the AC-to-DC power rig.
Took me a total of about an hour with all the prep and clean up combined.
I've seen people use 9V batteries to do this but figured it would be much more effective to use an AC/DC adapter and I was right.
---
Notes: I probably WOULDN'T etch the whole blade on a knife I really cared about. There was definitely some heat generated so I'd be concerned about affecting the heat treat.
This was effectively an experiment I did at work while on my lunch break. The biggest part was creating the mark with very simple means (i.e.: x-acto and tape).
I did sand the blade before etching which gave it a kind of stone washed effect on the surface as well, and sanded the skull after etching to make it shinier.
I took off about a mil (0.001") on the blade and probably 2-2.5 mil off where the skull is.
Overall, this was a very simple exercise and gives me ideas for other things I could do.
What:
Ka-Bar ZK Acheron
How:
Q-tips
12V/1Amp AC adapter with gator clips attached
Super salty water (almost a brine with aquarium salt)
Fingernail polish
Masking tape
x-acto blade
Acetone
I started by making the "mark" aka: skull design by drawing it with a pen on some white artist's tape.
Cut it out with the #11 x-acto and applied to the blade and masked rest of blade with tape.
Burned the crap out of it. Seriously, steam, sizzle, popping and a nice "ozone" smell.
Created the "splotchy" look with fingernail polish (some super random cheap stuff I found). Let it set and then went to work with the AC-to-DC power rig.
Took me a total of about an hour with all the prep and clean up combined.
I've seen people use 9V batteries to do this but figured it would be much more effective to use an AC/DC adapter and I was right.
---
Notes: I probably WOULDN'T etch the whole blade on a knife I really cared about. There was definitely some heat generated so I'd be concerned about affecting the heat treat.
This was effectively an experiment I did at work while on my lunch break. The biggest part was creating the mark with very simple means (i.e.: x-acto and tape).
I did sand the blade before etching which gave it a kind of stone washed effect on the surface as well, and sanded the skull after etching to make it shinier.
I took off about a mil (0.001") on the blade and probably 2-2.5 mil off where the skull is.
Overall, this was a very simple exercise and gives me ideas for other things I could do.
