Favorite method/product to degrease

J

Justin King

Joined
Nov 8, 2009
Messages
1,533
How do you degrease before etching/coating/blueing, etc? I have been plauged by uneven results with just about every etching process I have tried, regardless of how I degrease. I think my biggest problem is actually minerals in the tap water, but I want to be sure I am using a cleaning method that works well, if I have to start buying my wash water at the store. I am etching in ferric from Radio Shack, diluted 4-1 in distilled water, and immersing the blades for approx. 3 minutes.

The temperature of the ferric bath is fairly low, I know this sometimes affects how agressive the etch is. There is also no aerator or equivalent in the etch tank, I agitate the blades every minute or so during the soak. I did 3 blades yesterday, 2 came out fine but the 3rd got 3 treatments and came out with different patterns of light/dark areas each time. Fixin' to pull some hair out if I can't get it right today:eek:
 
I use to have some similar problems. Had very hard water (it was well water). I switched to using distilled water when mixing the etchant although I mixed at 2 to 1. It seemed to help. I stayed with the regular water for rinsing. BTW also changed the water I used in the leather work. I was getting alot of green and black spots when I would dampen the leather. Using distilled water fixed that too.
 
You could try washing it with (grease cutting) dish soap then rinsing with acetone before putting in the etchant. In Ed Caffrey's basic damascus dvd he is wearing rubber gloves, and uses acetone to get any oil/fingerprints off first. Worth a shot :P
 
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Soap and water, I like Dawn, it sees to really remove everything. The scotchbrite pads made for teflon are great for cleaning without scratching once they are free of any grit or anything that could scratch.

After the soap and water I give a good rinse in hot water then Reverse Osmosis purified water, it really gets any residue off.

After that I use acetone and sometimes alcohol.
 
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