Problem Etching My Intials into My Knife Blades Tang

O

orange blossom

Joined
Oct 6, 2005
Messages
9
I have a question about etching your initials, name, or logo/makers mark onto a knife blade I've made. I saw a video on UTube made by Nick Van Leuven on how to etch your makers mark onto a knife blade. I was interested in learning how to do this since I make make fix blade knives and would like to have my mark etched onto the blade. In the video he uses a 12 volt batter charger, white vinegar and salt for the acid etch. You paint a substance on the area of the blade you will be etching. He uses nail polish and then writes his initials into the polish exposing the blade. He then attaches the positive lead of the 12 volt battery charger set to 6 amps to the blade. He mixes the vinegar and salt solution and dips a cotton swab into it. He then attaches the wet end of the swab to the negative lead of the charger and touches the swab to the exposed initials which starts etching into the blade. He does this for a few minutes then removes the nail polish showing the initials etched into the blade. I have tried this five times now and can not get any reaction where my initials are etched into the blade. Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong? Does it make any difference if the blade is already heat treated or if the metal is stainless steel? When you touch the soaked cotton swab to the exposed blade is should start bubbling but there is not reaction. Yes the power is on. I have tried setting the 12 volt battery charger to 6 amps like Nick suggests. I've also tried 9 amps, 12 amps, clear up to 50 amps with no reactions. The white vinegar I'm using is the kind you buy at the grocery store. It's comes bottled in a solution diluted to 5%. Do I need a stronger solution of vinegar. This is all I can find. Any suggestions or tips would greatly be appreciated. Thanks Guys.
 
I have a question about etching your initials, name, or logo/makers mark onto a knife blade I've made. I saw a video on UTube made by Nick Van Leuven on how to etch your makers mark onto a knife blade. I was interested in learning how to do this since I make make fix blade knives and would like to have my mark etched onto the blade. In the video he uses a 12 volt batter charger, white vinegar and salt for the acid etch. You paint a substance on the area of the blade you will be etching. He uses nail polish and then writes his initials into the polish exposing the blade. He then attaches the positive lead of the 12 volt battery charger set to 6 amps to the blade. He mixes the vinegar and salt solution and dips a cotton swab into it. He then attaches the wet end of the swab to the negative lead of the charger and touches the swab to the exposed initials which starts etching into the blade. He does this for a few minutes then removes the nail polish showing the initials etched into the blade. I have tried this five times now and can not get any reaction where my initials are etched into the blade. Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong? Does it make any difference if the blade is already heat treated or if the metal is stainless steel? When you touch the soaked cotton swab to the exposed blade is should start bubbling but there is not reaction. Yes the power is on. I have tried setting the 12 volt battery charger to 6 amps like Nick suggests. I've also tried 9 amps, 12 amps, clear up to 50 amps with no reactions. The white vinegar I'm using is the kind you buy at the grocery store. It's comes bottled in a solution diluted to 5%. Do I need a stronger solution of vinegar. This is all I can find. Any suggestions or tips would greatly be appreciated. Thanks Guys.
 
Hello! This would be better placed in the knife makers section, http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php/741-Shop-Talk-BladeSmith-Questions-and-Answers
Click on the small triangle with an explanation point in the center and ask to have it moved to "shop talk". :)

Full disclaimer: I'm not a knife maker, I'd just like to think I know a couple shreds of information on the subject haha.
I would imagine you're right about the gent in the video using carbon steel, vinegar by itself with etch carbon steel in a couple hours, but I don't think vinegar, salt, and a 6 amp charger would be enough to etch stainless. I believe some makers use PCB etchant, ferric chloride, using the same method, minus the electricity. anyway, now that I've rambled a bit...I'll leave you on up your way. :)
 
Nicks video is solid, but he misses a major point about the car battery charger. Many modern smart car battery chargers will not send juice through the leads unless it detects a charge in the battery. This prevents them from sparking when accidentally touched together. These types cannot be used to etch with. Second, etching at 12VDC requires a little over .1 amps for the average logo. 6 amps is far more than you need. Try using a small wall charger with alligator clips. You can build one of these for a couple dollars. A q-tip is very usable, but it must be paper core for the electricty to conduct through it. Finger nail polish works, as does spray paint. Water and salt work well. Vinegar keeps etching slowly even when the power is off, salt water won't. Make sure to clean and oil your blade when you're done etching.

PS Stainless etches just as quickly and easily as carbon steel.
 
For many years I used an old DC power source (old cell phone charge at my house mysteriously disappeared...) and nail polish, as zaph1 describes. Works great. Make sure that the alligator clip makes contact with the wet part of the cotton swab to complete the circuit. The first time I tried it, I had the leads reversed. Once I reversed the leads it worked just fine.

You could probably use a 9V battery. May take a little longer, but it should work.

I upgraded about a year ago. I was working at a large biotech company and they were cleaning out a storage area. In the discard pile, there was an etcher. They said I could have it if I took it and they never saw it again. The down side of the commercial etcher is it is quite a bit larger than my DC power supply one. I still use cotton swabs with salt water as the etching pad.

There are some good threads here on making your own etcher. You can also find wiring diagrams on-line.

Ric
 
Thanks Guys for your helpful suggestions. I really appreciate it. Would anyone know what type of 12 volt battery charger Nick Van Leuven is using in his video on UTube or where I could find an older model charger? Better yet if anyone knows Nick's email address so I can contact him myself that would be great. I'd be grateful to receive more helpful tips for the problem I'm experiencing trying to etch my initials into my knife blade . Thanks again to everyone who replied to my questions. Keep them coming.
 
orange blossom said:
Thanks Guys for your helpful suggestions. I really appreciate it. Would anyone know what type of 12 volt battery charger Nick Van Leuven is using in his video on UTube or where I could find an older model charger? Better yet if anyone knows Nick's email address so I can contact him myself that would be great. I'd be grateful to receive more helpful tips for the problem I'm experiencing trying to etch my initials into my knife blade . Thanks again to everyone who replied to my questions. Keep them coming.
Click to expand...

Please don't waste your life looking for the exact same charger he used. Any 12v 'dumb' source will do. I use brine rather than vinegar, you might try that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top