How is this finish achieved?

[Jarrett Fleming]

There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING proprietary about etching a knife. He may have the term "spalted steel" trade marked or what ever it is it's "called", but by far I'm certain he does not have the process of etching a knife trade marked as "proprietary". He may guard how he gets the exact pattern he has and how he etches it in regards to what chemicals he uses but the process of etching I am certain he does not "own".. Personally I think it's great he sells a good number of blades, and if people find them attractive and desire them all the more good for him. I mean to bad mouth him in no way what so ever. He himself said it was a short cut to finishing knives "the easy way". It's no more than a gimmick and a gimmick that helps him sell knives. Kudos to him.

So in answering the question to the OP who asked how to get a texture like he asked about, there are literally hundreds if not thousands of people who etch knives. Nothing special about it, its an etching process. The etch looks splattered, so if you want an etch like that I'd suppose you'd have to find a way to splatter something to protect the high spots during the etch. I'm sure a few trials and errors and it wouldn't take much for someone to mimic it exactly. Well exactly enough considering that it is a completely random pattern.

Andy might chime in later, but I will say that the "spalting" is not achieved by etching.

 

[KnuckleDownKnives]

Andy might chime in later, but I will say that the "spalting" is not achieved by etching.

There aren't but 2 ways to achieve that, either straight up chemical etching of some kind or electro etching, which still requires a electrolyte which in sense is a chemical. It's not a mechanically made texture, there are too many images online to reference, especially the behind the scenes posts with pics of knives before the bevels are ground in and handles on. With the whole process being done to save time and labor it makes one wonder why the entire blade is textured if most of it would be ground off. Through the process of elimination and inspection of visual evidence that pretty much narrows the window on how it was done.

Then again, I wasn't trying to dissect how the maker is/was "actually" doing it, I was answering "how it could be achieved".... But since everyone wants to chime in and say "no that's not what he does" it makes one wonder why you're even commenting on it if you/he want to keep it a secret. It's steel, and there are only so many ways it can be done, and there is way to much evidence to view. Unicorns aren't real. Some people can be made to think they are though....

 

[mike-E]

there are 3 ways i can see it being done. 1. electro etching with a wet sponge large enough to fit the whole knife on. 2. same sponge used to carefully coat with some type of etching block then chemically etched. 3. two rollers in a purpose built machine, like a miniature wringer washer, that have either been extremely rusty at one point and cleaned up, or etched with a pattern. i think it could be done mechanically then a forced patina.