Muriatic Acid for hamons?

The etch/polish process I've used in the past went fairly quickly. I wasn't going for absolute maximum amazing detail because they were all users, but I wanted some detail. The longest part was sanding up to 1000-2000 grit. After that, I would do a 20 second dip in dilute FeCl3 followed by an ammonia neutralization. My polishing process was super fast, but worked for what I was looking for. I take red rouge, shave off some fine filings onto a disposable shop paper towel soaked with WD40 that is wrapped around one of my sanding bars, and then work it into the towel. Then I would polish the blade, removing the top oxides, repeating the etch/polish (with reloaded polishing towel) until I was happy (usually only 2-3 times). I could pull out more detail with vinegar or lemon etches and different polishing compounds, but I never found it necessary for what I was wanting. Here are a few pics of blades done this way:

I used the same setup that I do for sanding, just with the rouge loaded paper towel instead of sand paper:



And here are the results on a few blades:







--nathan
 
Thanks Nathan. Seems there are as many ways as there are makers. Your way obviously works very well. I'm trying to soak up everything in my head. I know I have to experiment but I don't want to screw up a blade that took me over a week to sand. It's not going to be a spectacular hamon anyway. It's just a simple straight quench line but I'd like it to be as nice as I can make it. I have to pick up some buffing compounds. At what grit do you start doing your etch or what grit do you finish with?
 
Thanks, Lucy. No I never took pictures of that particular knife beyond what you see. I put a handle /guard on it, but they really didn't turn out well. It was one of my first and few hidden tangs after many full tangs, and I was not at all happy with it. I left the handle on and used it around the shop and beat it up for testing. It cut like crazy and chopped through many a piece of 2x4. It's somewhere over at the old shop. I may someday grind off the handle and do it over if I get around to making again.

Marc, I sand up to 1500 or 2000 before etching. I don't typically hit it with sandpaper after that, just the rouge.

-nathan
 
i4Marc said:
What is the approximate grit value of Flitz polish?
Click to expand...

I know this is an old thread but I thought I could answer this question to help some other makers.

Flitz falls under the standard of being rated as "grit size" but I watched a video where a Flitz rep stated Flitz to be equivalent to 6000 grit.
 
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