help etching stainless damascus

tito

tito

Joined
May 30, 2006
Messages
670
I'm etching (attempting to anyways) a knife from ATS-34 stainless damascus. I can't get much of a contrast in the layers. I'm using 3 parts distilled water/1 part ferric cl. I hand rubbed the steel to 600 grit. I initially tried going about 30 sec at a time, but it took forever. Basically, the steel is being etched, but there's just not much contrast - it's like when you etch your name stamp into the steel and don't mark it to turn it black. Anyway, I ended up going too long, and now am in the process of re-sanding:grumpy: I suspect either I didn't clean well enough or the steel just won't have that much of a contrast after etching. Has anyone been down this road? Should I back the grit down to 400 or even 320 before etching?
 
Use battery acid (sulfuric acid) for 15 minutes. Then hand rub from 320 to 600 grit:

detail.jpg


It gives a "relief" etch.
 
After hand sanding, a light coat of oil will make the blacks really dark and the contrast will be even greater. The above picture doesn't show the blade with oil. With a light coat of oil, the pattern really "jumps" out! Have fun.
 
Just wanted to say thanks again. I found muriatic acid first at Lowes, so went w/that. Nice trick w/the oil - it looks pretty good.
 
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