Etching full tang damascus

B

Brett Bennett

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Dec 14, 1999
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I am not necessarily looking to do this, as it seems to be wasteful, IMO, but how can one etch the portion between the handle slabs after they are finished? I have seen it done and didn't think much of it until I gave it some thought. Any ideas?

Brett
 
I have done quite a few knives that I had hot blued and/or acid etched. I finish the entire knife except the rivets and bolster pins. Next take it apart and etch or blue the blade and then reassemble and carfully finish the rivet and pin areas. Bruce
 
That's a great question...especially since I am working on a full tang damascus blade right now (the beautiful damascus billet by none other than Bruce Bump
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).

I have always done hidden tangs on damascus, but this was a customer's idea.

I have read somewhere that you can just finish everything out, and then coat the handle slabs with vaseline (easier to remove than fingernail polish)...then etch away.

Thoughts???

Thanks,
Nick
 
I have coated with the finger nail polish but had a couple places that I missed somehow or overlapped too far. I would worry about the vasoline getting on the blade and not etching in those spots. I think its easier to dissasemble and etch. Also hate putting fingernail polish on an ivory handle. Bruce
 
I use dummy pins fitted very tightly to hold the scales and bolsters on and finish the knife. I then deep etch the whole blade. I assemble the knife and scales with 5 min epoxy. Using the epoxy sparingly (the deep etch gives the epoxy a good surface to bond to) as the epoxy sets you can carefully remove the excess before it has fully hardened. A light buffing afterwards is all the spine and belly of the handle needs to finish it.

Another option is to use screws to attatch the scales and bolsters with. Ive used this for fancy art type knives with excellent results.
 
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