Patina Question

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

I want to do a ferric chloride patina on a knife I just made. I understand how to get the patina because I used it on a few kubatons and a cord wrap handle knife I made.

My question is, exactly when do I do the patina? I have a feeling that the ferric would damage my horse stall mat scales so I think I should do it before glue up. I'm thinking of shaping the outside of the scales with some temporary pins, removing them, then doing the patina, glue up, and then final scale finish.

How do ya'll do it?

 

[Kunklec]

I do the etch before glueing. Make sure you have the handles completely finished before the etch as it only takes a small scratch to mess it up. That said, I have screwed up an etch on a horse stall knife before. To correct that. I used a Q-tip and kept applying small amounts of FC to the smoothed out error until I got a matching etch. The rubber is attached with Acra Glas which is pretty much impervious to the acid. Then used lots of windex to neutralize the FC. It did not change the appearence of the rubber and has not shown any rust over the past 6 months. I even tried putting a piece of the mat in the FC for some time and could not detect any change.
Not exactly the best way, but can salvage a brain fart without redoing a whole knife.
Chip Kunkle

 

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

I do the etch before glueing. Make sure you have the handles completely finished before the etch as it only takes a small scratch to mess it up. That said, I have screwed up an etch on a horse stall knife before. To correct that. I used a Q-tip and kept applying small amounts of FC to the smoothed out error until I got a matching etch. The rubber is attached with Acra Glas which is pretty much impervious to the acid. Then used lots of windex to neutralize the FC. It did not change the appearence of the rubber and has not shown any rust over the past 6 months. I even tried putting a piece of the mat in the FC for some time and could not detect any change.
Not exactly the best way, but can salvage a brain fart without redoing a whole knife.
Chip Kunkle

Thanks for the help!

It makes sense to do it in that order but I wasn't sure what everyone did.

Interesting the ferric didn't hurt the mat, it is some tough material!