Sanding and etching

D

Dave Hamilton

Joined
Feb 3, 2020
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107
Hey Everyone,

Assume this has been answered but searches came up not what I need. Working on two knives and will be acid etching with ferris chloride after heat treat. Both are O1 steel, scaled blades, all hand sanding will be done before etching to give a full patina look.

Regarding hand sanding and etching, minor scratch marks and sanding marks, whats the highest grit to smack these two with? I like a look in a more etched stonewash finish, but want to see just etching first after hand sanding. I should mention still using a Dayton 2x42, highest belt finish is 120grit, then to the fill jig with a bastard to flatten out more and have been using a smooth mill to get the bastard cuts out before hand sanding.

On stonewashing, I know it gives a weathered patina look, which I assume wouldn't require a ton of hand sanding prior and could easily setup, but if I avoid this, generally speaking would etching alone give a great weathered look?

Thanks guys, glad to be back on a few projects.
 
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Get a good stack of wet-or-dry sandpaper. The 3M stuff from the auto store is fine, but brands like Ryno-wet are really good. You want 120 thru at least 1200. Try 120, 220, 400, 800, 1200. Many folks go higher, but that is sufficient for your needs. 800 would probably work if you are thorough on each grit.
Once done with the grinder, start with the 120 by hand up to 400 grit. Put a few drops of dish soap into a bowl of water and dip the paper often. Change the paper as often as needed, which is quite often. When you change grits, dump and rinse the bowl well, wash your hands and the blade, and wipe off the sanding area. You don't want a stray coarser grit showing up later on. After 400 grit only sand in one direction. Most folks sand from the ricasso toward the tip.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Get a good stack of wet-or-dry sandpaper. The 3M stuff from the auto store is fine, but brands like Ryno-wet are really good. You want 120 thru at least 1200. Try 120, 220, 400, 800, 1200. Many folks go higher, but that is sufficient for your needs. 800 would probably work if you are thorough on each grit.
Once done with the grinder, start with the 120 by hand up to 400 grit. Put a few drops of dish soap into a bowl of water and dip the paper often. Change the paper as often as needed, which is quite often. When you change grits, dump and rinse the bowl well, wash your hands and the blade, and wipe off the sanding area. You don't want a stray coarser grit showing up later on. After 400 grit only sand in one direction. Most folks sand from the ricasso toward the tip.
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Thanks for the input Stacey, im good on hand sanding, to simplify my long post, if I'm darkening/etching with ferris chloride only, based on experience, could I stop at 220, 320, etc and the etching of FC will blend out nicely? Not show finished blades.
 
Etching will highlight scratch patterns or any deeper than final grit scratches.

Now if you tumble or stonewash after etching it may mute some but I have never tumbled a blade, that is purely hypothetical coming from me.
 
If I am acid stonewashing a blade I tend to hand sand to 400-600gr before etching. The scratches are small enough that it doesn't come through much after etching. If I'm etching for a Hamon or with a San Mai steel I will go up to 1000gr.
 
Shane Csepp said:
If I am acid stonewashing a blade I tend to hand sand to 400-600gr before etching. The scratches are small enough that it doesn't come through much after etching. If I'm etching for a Hamon or with a San Mai steel I will go up to 1000gr.
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Thanks Shane, will go to 600.
 
So, to further this knowledge I am trying to attain, here is a great example of finishes I dig, here's one from Valavian Edge Craft's IG:

2020-12-26_04-45-35 by Dave Hamilton, on Flickr

Most of his blades are a belt finish looking over his other stuff, but this darkening and patina is what I am trying to achieve. What would be a good starting point for me to achieve something similar? Hand sanding grit? would belt finishes be enough?
 
That’s a bit more of an industrial finish that I expected you were going for. If you bring your finish up to about 400 grit(A45 gator belt would work wonders) then a fine scotch brite belt should get you where you want to be.
 
If you just want darkening, a clean 320 or 400 grit will be fine in my experience. You could even make it darker by cold bluing after etching or using rust removal fluid (containing phosphoric acid) in the first place. @Natlek has used this in the past. For the weathered look just use the knife and it will come naturally.
 
If I'm doing an etched blade (I tend to fully blacken) I stop at 400 grit.
To get more of an aged look pull the blade out and scrub it with some 000 steel wool. Then spray with windex, wash it, see how it looks. Do it again if you want, maybe use some metal polish with the steel wool. Just play around with it.
 
I've been searching for knowledge similar in nature to this post regarding etching depth of color in relation to grit coarseness. I was fairly confident in what the outcome would be, but thought it best to have done my due diligence prior to testing my theory. I wondered if by leaving the flats, that run parallel on either side of the spine forwards from the ricasso, a lower grit, and finished the large bevels at a several hundred grit level higher (e.g. 600 rough vs 2000 buffed) if there would be a dramatic contrast in the color depth between the flat and bevel. I imagined that the lower grit would have deeper scratches, allowing the acid to go deeper into the grain, in turn appearing darker as does a lake in comparison to a puddle. I also thought about etching, taping off the bevels, and then etching again in order to give the flats a double dose. Thoughts? Thanks in advance.

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