On the first one, I tried to paint a tiger stripe pattern with nail polish before etching. I only did the handles and the clip. On the second knife, I just did a random splatter pattern on the handles and clip, again using nail polish. I covered the blade completely in wax and tried to cut a pattern into the wax with a razor blade. I etched all four parts on that one. On knife number three, I only etched the blade, and stonewashed the scales and clip. I was trying to sort of mimic that composite look with nail polish. The fourth one was my first try, and i tried using four different resists, only one of which worked well, so it came out pretty ugly. I ended up re-etching the blade and handles completely, with no resist, and then just stonewashing the whole thing. I like the look of the stonewash even better after its darkened from the acid. All in all, none of them came out quite the way I envisioned, but I had some success and learned quite a bit. I didn't like any of the blades really. If I do any more, I'll just be etching handles and leaving the blades alone. I'd like to try stonewashing some more blades, but I just hate to ruin a factory edge like that. None of these mods caused any fit issues, with the exception of the last knife. It developed a little bit of vertical play in the lock, probably from the double etch and stonewash treatment on both lock surfaces. Anyway, what do you think? Which one is your favorite? Which patterns/finishes do you like best? Any suggestions? Next, I think I might try etching a stripe pattern and then stonewashing. We'll see. (Sorry, I know this is a LOT of pictures.)
