Etching help

LongRifle

LongRifle

Joined
Apr 5, 2000
Messages
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I've been searching "etching damascus" aparantly it's been done to death...so I thought I'd throw on another thread :rolleyes:. This has a twist at least. I made my first damascus knife today. The etch isn't quite as deep as I hoped. I am using 1/4 fcl and water. I've etched the blade 3x for 10 minutes. The problem I'm having is the hardened part of the blade is barely etched while the soft part of the blade has a pretty deep etch. I was bright enoug :rolleyes: :rolleyes: to submerge the hardened section of the blade, which of course, put a nice line in the knife :). Anway, I am stuck with a varying etch? Thanks for the help.

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Matt
 
You're stuck. :(

Always try to get an even hardness with damascus to avoid that. Best thing to do is "If you cant fix it, Feature it".
 
Matt-

I'm not a big fan of edge-quenching anyway, but on damascus you'll get the two-tone effect really bad.

If you could take that handle off, I'd recommend baking laquer from Brownell's.

But since I really don't think you can---

The contrast in etch is caused by both depth and color variance. You can't even out the depth short of re-hardening. But you can change the color somewhat.

Get some Birchwood Casey SuperBlue (cold blue) follow the instructions on the label, and then very lightly sand the blade with 2000x and LOTS of water spritzed on both blade and paper. It will darken it (the valleys) and make overall color more even.

I do this to most all my damascus since you get more contrast this way.

Just someting to try Matt :)

-Nick-
 
Thanks for the help Nick. Ummmmm...I think this one is going to stay the way it is :). Something to try on the next one, thanks bud.
 
Good looking knife, I personaly like the harding line, but I know some makers that do a full quench and a soft back draw to get the hard edge soft spine/tange and not have a two tone etch.
 
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