Poor Etch???

M

Mike Mossington

Joined
Jan 1, 2004
Messages
108
Just etched a stainless damascus blade (20% Ferric Chloride, 80% distilled water, just like Admiral suggest). Hand sanded to 600 grit first. Some nice contrast on the tang, but halfway down the blade it turns kinda muddy. Can't see the nickel patterning at all.

Any ideas? What would/could make that happen? How to correct??

Much appreciated.

Mike
 

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Mike take some baking soda , water and a tooth brush and give it a good scrubbing a see how it looks!
 
Try muriatic or hydrochloric acid instead on stainless damascus. Available at Home Depot and the like for pools. Use straight out of the bottle which is about 34% I believe. Works great. Use at room temp or a little warmer.
 
The muriatic works well for stainless damascus. It leaves a bright etch.

CAUTION: Use it outside and away from all other steel. The vapors will destroy your lungs, and corrode any nearby metal. Store away from good equipment. I keep the bottle in a drywall bucket, out by the Garden shed.
Stacy
 
If none of the above worked then the ss may not be heat treated evenly, I have not made ss damascus but I have made alot of carbon steel and if you do not heat treat evenly you will see it in your etch.
 
D lisch said:
If none of the above worked then the ss may not be heat treated evenly, I have not made ss damascus but I have made alot of carbon steel and if you do not heat treat evenly you will see it in your etch.
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That is my first thought also and is likely the case but:
I also had troubles with ss damascus and proper ht (Bos) years ago. I didnt have the steel clean enough and oils from something, maybe even finger prints resisted the etch. Ferric is not strong enough to overcome the oils. Muratic is powerful stuff but works. Be careful.
 
Bruce, I clean with acetone, first the tang, then holding the tang in a cloth and clean the blade. I will be more careful in future. But Ferric chloride is so hard to get these days, maybe I will just switch to Muriatic, now that I have bought a gallon of the stuff.

Thanks for the help, guys. I used muriatic acid today and it cleaned right up. Awful stuff, but did the trick. Actually did 2 blades today.

Mike
 
John L said:
Try muriatic or hydrochloric acid instead on stainless damascus. Available at Home Depot and the like for pools. Use straight out of the bottle which is about 34% I believe. Works great. Use at room temp or a little warmer.
Click to expand...

If you will indulge a newbe to etching .
Please could you tell me what other aplications is it used for that you can just buy it a your local home depot.
Richard
 
its cool how one finger print can resist an etch. one of my blades has a perfect finger print etched on it. i tuched the blade befor etching and it looks kinda cool :).
 
Tinbasher said:
If you will indulge a newbe to etching .
Please could you tell me what other aplications is it used for that you can just buy it a your local home depot.
Richard
Click to expand...
muriatic acid is used in construction,used for cleaning brick and mortar.
 
my dad uses it as a wash on a new concreet slab. it eats the lime and pravents that white look when its dry.
 
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