Etching a logo in O1

[MDelConte]

Having trouble with the electro etching. I’m using salt and water and a 12 V battery source. I’m etching O1 and had no problem doing it on a clean scrap piece. Nice deep etch. I just tried it on my hardened blade and it didn’t do anything. What’s going on?

 

[91bravo]

Did you make sure the positive was connected to bare metal and you are etching from the negative side? I also use a lot of salt in my solution, but hear that de-ionized water works in place of salt water as well.

 

[MDelConte]

I’m actually using a dewalt cordless drill battery (think 18v not 12) and alligator clips... don’t know which is the negative... can try again and switch if it doesn’t work. The alligator clip got eaten up so maybe had them backwards? Used some Sparklets water and a lot of salt. May have switched pos/neg between the test and trying today. Has worked great on the test pieces before until trying the hardened blade!

 

[MDelConte]

Made sure I had the positive lead connected to the blade and it worked like expected! Thanks for the tip!