etching non-hardened Damasteel

Michael Black

Michael Black

Joined
Jun 29, 2014
Messages
412
Will it show any contrast? I have a scrap of non-hardened Damasteel left over from a chef knife project, and I was hoping I could use it for a bolster. The only problem is that I have to send out my Damasteel blades for HT, so if it needs to be hardened, I would have to wait a few weeks, which I'd prefer to avoid if possible.
 
I imagine it's the same issue, the unhardened carbon won't etch as dark, but I could be wrong.
 
I played with this with some katana parts. Long story short it will look poor and discordant with the blade unless you harden it.
 
eric brinkerhoff said:
No harm in trying and seeing! You can always sand it out and try over!
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I was hoping you guys could save me some time, since it's kind of a pain to use heated muriatic acid! I wish it was as easy as a quick ferric dunk.
Richard338 said:
I played with this with some katana parts. Long story short it will look poor and discordant with the blade unless you harden it.
Click to expand...
Well in this case, it isn't matching the blade, so at least that's not a concern thankfully.
Larrin said:
Also stainless steels aren’t stainless if you don’t harden them.
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Good point, but it doesn't need to be, since it's just some bling on a carbon steel knife.

I guess I'll try it and see what it looks like, and if I don't like the look I'll just put the idea on the back burner until I have some knives to send out for HT.

Thanks all!
 

damascus etch contrast

I made some katana handle fittings with Devin Thomas damascus (AEB-L/304). I didn't heat treat them and as people have mentioned in the past, without HT the contrast didn't turn out great. I can see a hint of some nice patterns and want to bring this out. I did a blade with this material before...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
You can see what happened with mine in this link.
 
Richard338 said:

damascus etch contrast

I made some katana handle fittings with Devin Thomas damascus (AEB-L/304). I didn't heat treat them and as people have mentioned in the past, without HT the contrast didn't turn out great. I can see a hint of some nice patterns and want to bring this out. I did a blade with this material before...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
You can see what happened with mine in this link.
Click to expand...
Very helpful, thanks!
 
Anyone local to you that can HT stainless for you so you don't have to send it out?
 
Your right smack in the middle of MI's iron working heyday. There's bound to be a machine shop around that'll do your HT for you...
 
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