Ferric Chloride etch

WaltE99

WaltE99

Fickle Bastard Blades
Joined
Oct 5, 2015
Messages
179
Hello all and Happy New Year! I'm curious what effect, if any, a FC etch will have as a potential rust inhibitor on O1. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Etching seems to improve corrosion resistance, but only slightly. A carbon steel blade still needs to be dried off after use.
 
I have etched 01 before and they look nice but still need to be put up dry and oiled if not being used often.

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Thanks guys! I appreciate the help. I am making a knife for someone who will be using it around salt water, so if etching helps even a little, I'm going to go ahead and take that step.

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Etching is really a form of passivation, it's oxidising the layer on the surface, which makes less iron available to rust. It's just not very good at it. Parkerizing would be my recommendation. Rather than an oxide layer, you get a phosphatized layer that holds oil like a wick. But an etch would be better than satin finish.
 
I love parkerized steel. I have done that finish to a TON of gun parts and thy always hold up well.
 
What's involved in Parkerizing? Any special equipment?

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It's not to hard but does require the proper setup. When I did gun barrels we had 3 heated tanks. One was water and TSP, then next was just water and the last was the zink phosphate solution. You would have all 3 tanks heated just below boiling. The parts would go into the tsp tank and it could be heated to boiling to clean the parts. Then it went into a hot water rinse tub. Then into the park tub. It would sit in that tub for X min and come out and go right into the hot water tub. This step is important so the park solution does not dry and deposit White zink residue onto the new fresh surface. Then out of the hot water and we used WD40 to displace the water and cure the park.
 
Thanks but I don't think I want to go to all that set up for one blade! There are 2 gun shops here including one that does very high end restoration work for customers all over the country. I may check to see if either of those do it.

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Personally I don't care for any paint or finish on blades besides a polished or hand rubbed finish. The issue for me is coating are temperary and will wear off with use. Damascus is different becaus it needs the etch but O1 is nice with a nice 400-600 grit hand rubbed finish and just wipe it down. But like I said that's my personal opinion.
 
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