Ineffective etching neutraliser

XT John · Jan 11, 2011

Hi All, My name is XT John and live in Queensland Australia.
I started making a few knives last year and had a stamp/punch made with my touchmark but also bought an Etch-O-Matic and some stencils to do some more refined marking. The trouble I've found is that the supplied etchant neutraliser doesn't work. After creating a nice clear mark on a blade, it continues to etch and becomes blurry after a couple of days. I mixed it according to the instructions and it doesn't matter whether I give it a good wipe down with a cloth soaked in the neutraliser or soak the blade in the stuff for an hour or more, it still continues to etch.
Are there any tricks to this, or are there other chemicals that can be used to stop the etching process?

Just for interest I've posted a couple of photos of some of my knives so you can see the sort of things I do.

Thanks in advance...XT.

J.KNIGHT · Jan 12, 2011

Glass cleaner with amonia or baking soda should work

bbarnettAUS · Jan 12, 2011

Is your neutraliser the yellow stuff???

Mike Turner · Jan 12, 2011

Like Jason said I use Windex with ammonia and have no problems

XT John · Jan 12, 2011

bbarnettAUS said:
Is your neutraliser the yellow stuff???

Thanks for the input guys. Are all etchants pretty much the same or is there something special about the Etch-o-matic stuff?
Hi Bruce, yes, it is the yellow granules that needed to be disolved. You sound like you're familiar with it.

EScott · Jan 12, 2011

I use window cleaner with ammonia and it works great.

bbarnettAUS · Jan 12, 2011

XT John said:
Thanks for the input guys. Are all etchants pretty much the same or is there something special about the Etch-o-matic stuff?
Hi Bruce, yes, it is the yellow granules that needed to be disolved. You sound like you're familiar with it.

Same stuff ive got and it works ok but have found it works better if you scrub the etch with a cotton bud soaked in it. Then just "wipe" the surface clean with 2500 to get rid of the halo that sometimes appears around your mark. Windex should also work.

XT John · Jan 13, 2011

Thanks Bruce. I've tried the cotton bud idea, scrubbing the etch with one soaked and re-soaked in the "yellow peril" for 15 minutes but to no avail!
I will give the windex a go and also a light run over with some 2500 w&d.