Removing etching

[jayinhk]

I recently had a custom balisong made for me in the Philippines. It has a damascus blade and mammoth ivory inserts, and the guys did a great job on the inserts and blade, but they tried to etch it themselves and really screwed it up. They'd never etched damascus before, and they left bubbles on the blade and left it in the acid so long, the entire blade went black. I'd like to polish off all the grooves and etchant and just lightly etch the blade in phosphoric acid.

Anyone have any suggestions on how I can do this without unpinning the balisong? Most of the blade is easy enough to polish with sandpaper, but since it is somewhat hollowground and the area under the tang is really close to the handles, I'm having trouble getting those areas smooth and clean.

 

[SteelSlaver]

What are the handles made of and how are they pinned. I understand the black but don't get the "bubbles". I personnally like the black high carbon areas and will boil the blade in water to help fix the black then hit the higher nickel bearing steel with high grit paper to get contrast. Even a short etch in ferric chloride will turn high carbon black. Usually though a buffer will take everything to bare metal. The area under the handles would be difficult without removal.

 

[jayinhk]

The handles are stainless steel with aluminum liners. They are pinned with stainless steel pins that are peened to stay put. I'm not sure if there were bubbles in the acid or if there was oil on the blade, but there are patches which didn't get etched quite as well as the rest of the blade, so I couldn't just buff down the original stain with 1000 grit as it would look terrible.

I don't own a buffer, unfortunately, and I'm scared to try and dremel between the handles. I got some of the oxide off by taping the bolsters and getting sandpaper in between them.

Thanks for the advice though...I could always take these knives back to the Philippines in October, but they couldn't get on them right away and I'd have to wait until my next trip to the Philippines to pick them up. Another worry is damage to the mammoth ivory and sambar stag (I had four balisongs made) if they were to unpin them and buff the blades on the grinder before repinning them.

 

[jayinhk]

This is the kind of light etch I'd like to achieve:

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=6561&stc=1

I told the guys I'd handle the etch, but they decided to try it for themselves. I told them I'd re-etch them myself, but I didn't realize how much work that was going to be, especially when all I can do is sandpaper the blades down...