How to remove etching?

Daniel Flory

Daniel Flory

Joined
Mar 10, 2003
Messages
69
Currently I'm studying Wing Chun amongst other things and I would like to get a pair of beater butterflies. I'm having a custom pair of butterflies made by Andre De Villiers but those are months away. The one that seems to be the right size for me is the Hanwei ones. The only problem is that they have this tacky acid etching all over the blade.

http://store.knifecenter.com/pgi-ProductSpec?2067GT

So I figured I would try a lot of Flitz and some elbow grease. Is there a better way to get that "artwork" off of the flats? Thanks in advance!
 
Going to be a complete refinish on the blade. Its hard to tell how deep that is. Start with either 150 or 220 grit snadpaper (wet dry is best) depending on depth of the etch. Make passes in one direction (not back and forth, you'll get a cloudy finish with little hook marks where you change direction). It will help to use a peice of leather or cardboard like a sanding block. Once you've taken the etch off completely, start progressing to finer and finer grits of paper until you get the finish you want. It will go a little quicker if you can make the steps from one grit to next small (IE don't try to go directly from 220 to 400)
 
It will take you more work without power tools, but it can also be teh case that you can ruin the temper using power tools.
I took off the bead blasting and the etching on a CRKT F4, and that was a lot of work. Good luck!
 
Assuming that it's an actual etch and not just inking, Flitz is powerless against it. Etching removes metal selectively. To get rid of it, you need to remove metal too. One of the joys of Flitz is that it won't remove metal.

Removing an actual etching is very difficult.

BTW, I know nothing about these knives, but, in general, when a knife comes with a wall plaque, that should tell you something.
 
Perhaps you should consider going the other route and add to it to cover the pattern up by Bluing it, "painting" it black, or etching the parts that are not etched.
 
Thanks for the info all! I may try the sandpaper thing since they're just beaters anyway.

Chuck- Note the part where I said "beater". My blades from ADV in Suid Afrika are at LEAST six months away.

DEA- The Cold Steels are all wrong in many different ways for me. The custom made ADVs should fit quite nicely though.

Bruz- I was actually thinking about getting them hard chromed if the sandpaper doesn't work.
 
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