Pattern Welded Steel - Tang Finishing

ScarFoot

ScarFoot

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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Sep 16, 2021
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I’m close to finishing this knife but I had to touch up a couple of proud spots on the tang after I peened the handle scales to it. I re-etched it with FeCl on a q-tip but the pattern doesn’t show up well and now there are a few spots where you can see the etch/pattern and it just looks…bad. I thought about just sanding and polishing the spine to add contrast but I also thought about coating the spacers in nail polish and soaking the whole knife in coffee for a while. Is that crazy/risky. I’m too far along to “for science” this one so I’d like to know how the pros would handle it. Just for info the spacers are g10 and the scales are paper micarta. Everything is epoxied with G-flex.
IMG_0023.jpegIMG_0014.jpeg
 
Personally I just polish the spine and tang, I now use mostly removable hardware so if I really wanted to I could shape the handle entirely then disassemble and etch the blade but that doesn’t really help in this case. I’ve seen people say you can pretty much dunk micarta in ferric or coffe and it won’t hurt it but I could see it possibly discoloring the white g10. My vote would just be to polish the tang versus risking messing up the handle or having to go back and forth between etching and refinishing the handle.
 
Use sacrificial pins:
-shape the handle
-remove scales
-etch
-glue up/remove excess epoxy with cloth and acetone.
-carefully finish sides with pins so as not to mess up the etch
-done!
 
I'd coat the white g10 in nail polish and just put the whole thing in ferric. But probably do some experimenting with some scrap piece's of that handle material to see what the acid will do to it.
 
Coating with nail polish works. I've done this before, painting the whole handle, then etched the whole knife and cleaned everything off. I used colored nail polish so I could see it better, but didn't have any white I needed to worry about.
 
Make sure the spine is absolutely claened off after polishing!
Clean it with denatured alcohol a couple times. Then use fresh FC in a bit higher concentration. You may have to rub it with the Q0-tip for a while to get enough depth of etch. Coffee sound like a bad idea.
 
navman said:
Use sacrificial pins:
-shape the handle
-remove scales
-etch
-glue up/remove excess epoxy with cloth and acetone.
-carefully finish sides with pins so as not to mess up the etch
-done!
Click to expand...
I essentially do this exact process but, when I do final fit up, I taper the pin holes before I peen them and on a few knives it’s slightly affected the alignment to the point you can catch a fingernail on the tang. Since my other knives have been standard steels the touch up process and getting the finish to match is much easier.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Make sure the spine is absolutely claened off after polishing!
Clean it with denatured alcohol a couple times. Then use fresh FC in a bit higher concentration. You may have to rub it with the Q0-tip for a while to get enough depth of etch. Coffee sound like a bad idea.
Click to expand...
I did this with 5:1 water/FC for probably 8-10 minutes before I took the pictures in my original post. The other blade I made out of another piece of the same steel got the same FC treatment overall as this knife and then I left it in coffee over night. It came out a lot darker and other than that It didn’t rust or anything. That’s why I was curious about the coffee. I was more worried about staining the white g10 than anything. I did a test piece and confirmed It will stain it. I’ll probably do some more FC and see what happens. I just don’t want to etch too much along the scales to where it looks like a gap.
Maybe I’m overthinking it…
 
ScarFoot ScarFoot the coffee doesn't really "etch" per se, it just kinda "stains" the etched area. But it will also stain everything else, handle materials, spacers... teeth...
You get the idea.
 
A.McPherson said:
ScarFoot ScarFoot the coffee doesn't really "etch" per se, it just kinda "stains" the etched area. But it will also stain everything else, handle materials, spacers... teeth...
You get the idea.
Click to expand...
I’ve been tinkering with it just to see what darkening effect it actually has since the internet is all over the place on the subject. I etched for 20-30 minutes total in FC before the coffee. I left the knife in the pics in the coffee for 1-2 hours and another blade I’m working on overnight. It did darken the blade I left overnight noticeably. I also confirmed it will stain the white g10 with a test piece.
 
There also seems to be a "setting" time, after you darken... I'm not sure how long you need to to leave it to set, but over night seems to work.

If you mess with it too soon, it'll just wipe off.
 
Last edited:
Well I tried to etch the spine and it ultimately failed. It seemed to want to etch more along the seam between the tang and the liners. I assume this was because it was making a small channel there and causing the FC to naturally pool in the groove it was etching. It was all perfectly smooth before etching. Anyway, there was a noticeable brown line between the tang and liners after the FC was neutralized and everything was cleaned up. The only way I could get rid of it was to sand it all back out. It really didn’t bring out any other character so I’m just going to polish the spine and tang and call it good. I’m tired of working on the stupid thing. On to the next one.

Thanks for all the suggestions!
 
Capillary action is a bugger, there is a not too insignificant risk that FC has worked its way between the tang and scales, with the obvious long term consequences.
I would sacrifice the pins and remove the scales to be sure.

better to lose the scales than the damascus.
 
Way-Barney said:
Capillary action is a bugger, there is a not too insignificant risk that FC has worked its way between the tang and scales, with the obvious long term consequences.
I would sacrifice the pins and remove the scales to be sure.

better to lose the scales than the damascus.
Click to expand...
I don’t doubt that could happen but I’m not terribly worried about it going that far in this case. My comment about it pooling/channeling probably sounded worse than it really was. I was applying the FC with a q-tip dampened with solution so there wasn’t any excess and I was monitoring throughout the process. I also neutralized and reapplied a couple of times. It Just appeared that in a spot or two the layer against the scale was non-stainless so it was etching harder between the scale and the stainless layer and didn’t look right. I’ve sanded it all back out and don’t see any evidence of etching beyond where I sanded under 10x magnification. I’ve touched up non-Damascus knives like this before and never had trouble. I’ll keep an eye on it. I’ve set the whole project aside for now because I’m tired of messing with it. If the handle falls of the next time I pick it up I’ll know not to do that next time…
 
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