Etching A Full Tang Damascus Knife

Michael J. Spangler

Michael J. Spangler

Joined
Oct 8, 2003
Messages
2,181
So i have an order for a nice damascus knife and i'm curious how to go about etching the thing. its going to be damascus with ivory handles, how can i get a nice even etch without having to dip the blades and mess up the ivory??
thanks guys
 
You're going to have to fit up all the parts without epoxying them first, then take it apart and etch, then epoxy it all up.
 
and try sure as hell not to bump into anything during clean up huh?
i don't see why i couldn't do that, run through some pins just to hold it together do some shaping, pull it apart and etch then throw it back together
 
Believe me, it'll look a lot better that way, than if you try to etch the tang with a Q-tip after the epoxy sets. I have seen knives done both ways, and the maker who went to the extra trouble of fitting the parts up first had the best result, by far.
 
Hi

When ever I use damascus I use threaded stand-offs (folder piviots) and screw everthing together. This way you can finish your knife completely, diassemble,etch, re-assemble and collect your money. If useing screws is not an option, I have used masking tape before. I carefully apply 3-4 layers of tape, making sure they are stuck down well with no over lap on to the steel.

Kinda o.t.

I once used cold making tape to cover a set of elephant Ivory slabs and the tape didn't stick in the acid. Lets just say that its a good thing that elephants don't come in contact with murriadic acid in the wild. That was a couple years ago and that still pi$$es me off when I think about it.



hope this helps
jimi
 
how do you dry fit a glued and ground handle on a full tang knife? I have been thinking of this problem also.
 
blgoode said:
how do you dry fit a glued and ground handle on a full tang knife? I have been thinking of this problem also.
Click to expand...

I do it with clamps and pins. You have to be real sure the scales are perfect before you glue-up and make double-sure about everything. Its a real pita, but its just about the only way. Oh, and don't get too sloppy with the glue either. For this type of scale install, I trim down an acid brush and paint the epoxy on both sides then apply. Very little squeeze-out to deal with, and no gaps.
 
I just grind so much of the sides down I guess I could get a REALLY tight fitting pins or just spot soperglue them on. That maight work :) ???

Who sells this stuff anyway?
 
If any of you saw that damascus and ironwood fixed blade I had at the HI, I had to do this. I fitted the scales and had the pins tight enough that they held fast. I ground the scales to final finish prior to any etching at all. Then I etched the whole knife. I used epoxy, cleaned it up fast as it set, and that was that. Heres a pic of the spine:
spine.jpg
 
im only on my third knife of course,,, but i just assumed you finished everything and then final assembled it. that way if you goof,, you only mess up one part, not the whole knife.
am i just being too careful?
i just keep picturing a nearly finished knife catching my buffing wheel and skittering acrossed the cement floor.
 
I have made a couple with file work all around the handle and only the blade etched. I did not want the plaon damascus pattern to mess up the file work.

I used plastic electrical tape to wrap the handle. The only part of the handle I finished was the leading edge. I pinned that in place over the tape the cut around the edge. It gave a nice clean edge to the etch at the start of the scales.

Because the file work went all the way round it looked ok to be polished metal file work not damascus. A matter of taste I supose. It did mean all I had to do was remove the tape after the etch put in the mosaic pins and gule up. I shaped the handle while glued.

Acid has always lifted the tape I use. Copper sulphate has not lifted the tape.

If I had a nice spine pattern to show I would probably go for the assemble and strip method. As described by the others.
 
John Warren you have good cause to be cautious. Buff wheels are extreamly dangerous. If you don't take particular care with them. I have a mate nearly cut his thumb off whist a knife catching the buff and grabbing.

I never rush when I buff and only when I am ready to concentrate on that.
Loose concentration may loose a finger. sorry to go off trak a bit but buffers scare the hell out of me. I also saw a belt buckle go into a face one time. The buckle was being cleaned.
 
Yup...buffers scare me...Iv had things caught by them flug so fast I think they ripped the fabric of space and time, becuase I never saw them again...
 
Tik Tock

your right mate. My old mate Lloyd Harding and I were looking for the latest thing to go flying down a dusty crevass. Old Lloyd comes up ah beauty. He found the end pommel for a dagger that went into that same rip 15 years earlier. 4 expiditions and a tracer dog got lost looking for that pomel so it must have been a rip. Thanks for the answer.
 
Michael J. Spangler said:
So i have an order for a nice damascus knife and i'm curious how to go about etching the thing. its going to be damascus with ivory handles, how can i get a nice even etch without having to dip the blades and mess up the ivory??
thanks guys
Click to expand...

I've done a bazillion of these if you are referring to a full tang knife. Rough cut out your scales. Use throw-away brass pins and use Elmers glue to hold on the scales - just a dot here and there on each side - good distribution around the perimeter. Clamp overnight. 9 times out of ten this will hold well enough to allow you to do all your finishing, sanding and even polishing the wood around the perimeter. If a scale loosens up you will have to re-glue. You'll have to leave the flat along the side of the scale where the pins are, unfinished. Knock out your brass pins. Put a piece of leather on the top edge of one of the scales and whack (easy) it until you get one scale off. You should have drilled a lot of holes in your tang (to take off weight and to allow you to glue one scale to the other rather than to the metal). Use a punch to tap the other scale off through the hole in the handle. Etch. Put the scales back on using your finish pin material then hand finish the pin tops and wood on the side of the handle. If you use a metal bolster be sure to use some kind of stop or resist on the mating face between wood and bolster to prevent a gap from occuring. Stick tang is a slightly different story.
 
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