Removing etching on GEC blades?

B

Bigbluefish

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Aug 19, 2009
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I rather like the "BS" etching on my Beer Scouts, but find myself a bit put-off by the more extensive text on some other GEC knives I'd otherwise like to have, such as the #65 "Ben Hogan" and some of the Northfield knives. I'm just of the opinion that the blade should be clean. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

So, were I to purchase a Ben Hogan, in that nice green camel bone, how the heck can I get rid of the writing without buggering up the blade otherwise? Nothing against Ben Hogan (whichever one GEC is honoring) but I'd get the knife if I could get rid of the writing without doing undue damage to the blade.

Could I just let it patina, then take Flitz to it, or something like that? Or would I then just have a writing free, but badly polished blade?

I'm sure someone here has had the same urge, at some point.
 
I have used regular polish (simichrome) to significantly lighten the etch. I don't think you can completely remove the etch unless you actually sand it off.

The metal polish will really make a difference. If you do it, please post before after pics.
 
Bigbluefish said:
I rather like the "BS" etching on my Beer Scouts, but find myself a bit put-off by the more extensive text on some other GEC knives I'd otherwise like to have, such as the #65 "Ben Hogan" and some of the Northfield knives. I'm just of the opinion that the blade should be clean. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

So, were I to purchase a Ben Hogan, in that nice green camel bone, how the heck can I get rid of the writing without buggering up the blade otherwise? Nothing against Ben Hogan (whichever one GEC is honoring) but I'd get the knife if I could get rid of the writing without doing undue damage to the blade.

Could I just let it patina, then take Flitz to it, or something like that? Or would I then just have a writing free, but badly polished blade?

I'm sure someone here has had the same urge, at some point.
Click to expand...
Should be able to polish it off of the shiny finish Northfield blades. Not sure how well it would work on the brushed finish Tidioute blades.

I have a Northfield knife with the shiny blades that came to me with some patina from a prior owner. I polished it off using Simichrome, and tried to spare the blade etch as much as possible. However, it is still just a ghost of its former self. If I really wanted to get rid of it, I am sure it would polish right off.

I guess it depends on the particular etching process used (whether just imprinted on the surface or etched into the surface) and the blade finish.
 
I've used Simichrome also. Like intron said, it significantly lightens the etch. It leaves a ghost etch, so to speak, that can only be seen at certain angles or if you're really looking for it.

I'm not sure if the Green Camel bone Ben Hogan has a polished blade or not but the Simichrome will polish up a satin blade. I'm sure Flitz would polish it up even more.
 
The etch is not very deep, very easy to get rid of. Just use the knife and it will disappear pretty quickly. If you want to get rid of it more quickly some sort of metal polish will take care of it, I have used mothers mag polish and it seems to do a good job.
 
Thanks, guys.
I'm leaning towards just going with the patina, and see how that does. I can always look at the other side of the blade, anyway.
Why? I dunno. I'm not a golfer, so "Ben Hogan" in big bold letters on the blade seems kind of out-of-place to me.
 
The patina from cutting just one apple was enough to almost completely hide the etch on my new 73. You can still see the "Northfield" a little if you hit just the right angle in just the right light, but I don't think it's very long for this world at this point.
I agree with you about etching on blades in general, but apparently GEC makes theirs little more than a surface mark.
 
Flitz has done the trick for me. It does sometimes leave a "ghost etch" but a patina covers that in short order.
 
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