My First Attempt at Etching

Z

zactimusprime

Joined
Mar 23, 2013
Messages
15
Hello everyone,
First time posting here on blade forums.
So before receiving my CS Spartan I read up on any issues there might be with it and one of them was the blade rusting. After reading up that you could acid etch the blade and it would help. So to the interwebs I went and watched way to many videos on how to do it.
Tonight I finally had time to pick up the acid solution from radio shack and went home to try it out.
Now I didn't want to wreck my brand new (and let's not forget bad ass) knife so I dug through my collection and found some older knives that weren't in my EDC rotation and that I didn't mind if i wrecked them.
They are both cheap knives, one is like $1.00 at Wally World that I bought to throw in my tackle box and the other is one I bought as a gift for my brother and decided to just get two because... well because why the hell not.
So here are the results,
348nbdt.jpg

5ppj7.jpg

2em2x5s.jpg

You can see in the first picture how it took the mirror finish right off. Had I left it in longer I'm sure it would have turned out better. But this was my first time doing this so I was a bit hesitant.
The second and third are of the Wally World knife The stripes were easy to do, all it took was a little nail polish and patients(that stuff takes forever to dry!).
Any feedback would be appreciated.
I plan on doing this to my Spartan with a design on the blade made from a template I'm still in the process of looking for. I still need advice on how long to keep it in there and the little things to do. So please help me with this. If I get good at this I might start doing it for other people if they like the results of what I do.
Thanks for looking.
 
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I've done it a few times on cheap knives too. The only jobs on decent knives that I've really liked is a full bath followed up with an aggressive stonewashing. Someone on here (Nevermore maybe?) has done it on a few very nice knives and they look fantastic! One was a 'Zaan. I also saw the same treatment on a CS Spartan in the exchange a while back that looked great.

In any case good luck and post pics when you're done. :)
 
I found it pretty hard to do. I watched a lot of youtube videos and used a cheap knife. I will work on it though.
 
Overall I didn't find it hard to do. But the thing that gets me is it mostly comes out blotchy. But I guess that I could sand/Steel Wool it. Could anyone point me to a write up on here for this?
 
What is your ratio? I use about a 75% solution to 25% water mix. I leave it for about 20 minutes, then wash well with soap and a paper towel.

Btw, don't ever put your solution in a plastic baggie. It'll chew through it immediately. Also, the etchant is sensitive to light if you are saving it. Store it in something dark.
 
I used just the straight solution. I put it in a mason jar and had another mason jar right next to it with water and I would take it out every 3-4 minutes and dip it in the water and wipe it off to see how dark it was.
I might experiment more by mixing it with water/letting it sit longer.
I just put the solution back in the container I got it in.
Nice work by the way! :thumbup: I never thought of using candle wax.
 
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