Spots from Etch

[colu41]

Ive done a few hamons, and I've seen these before, but not of this magnitude! Can someone tell me what happens to cause this?

I sanded it out to a clean 800grit, and this is what it looked like. I went back and resanded to 800 grit, and still the same. Then I went back to 600 grit, then up to 800 again, and still the gray damn spots! Blade couldn't have been any more clean than it was. After hand sanding was washed with soap and hot water, and then soaked in acetone to make sure there was no grit or grease left on the thing. Nothing seems to be working.

 

[Matt Rochester]

When you say you sanded it back down how far did you take it? I had one that I had to take back down to 60 grit or so before I got the spots off. In my case I think I didn't have all the scale removed. If you notice the bevel is clean and that's the part that's been ground down the farthest.

 

[Josh Rider]

Are you wiping the blade after your first dip then redipping? I usually dip and wipe the blade with facial cloth wipes then dip and repeat.

 

[J. Doyle]

It's one of two things:

1: (Most Likely) It's scale and/or decarb still left from heat treating. I've seen it look exactly like what's going on here in your blade and the fact that it's on just your flats and not the bevels suggests this even more.

2: It's something from the acetone itself. Acetone can sometimes leave a weird film of it's own...I don't know if its just certain brands or what but I quit using acetone as a cleaner on blades before etching. Dawn dishsoap and hot water always do the trick for me and they're guaranteed to rinse clean.

 

[colu41]

Matt and J Doyle, I think you guys are spot on. Although when I originally brought it up to 800 grit. It looked great, but, possibly just making the scale left on there shiny? Lol. I will start back at the beginning. Thanks guys

 

[colu41]

Update: just hit it quick with a 120 grit belt. Still see some scale in there. Although I have a lot of work to "redo" on here, glad we figured out what it was because it was getting very frustrating.

 

[Greenberg Woods]

Quick questions, how do you leave the blade smokey grey? I use 1500 carbide grit after etching and it's back to shiny steel.

 

[kuraki]

Quick questions, how do you leave the blade smokey grey? I use 1500 carbide grit after etching and it's back to shiny steel.

I rub with 000 steel wool after the rinse to get a subdued grey. Knocks the oxide off that is loose but doesn't go much further than that. Of course, the steel wool is about a 1 time use item for this. FC and water on it and nothing I try seems to rinse/dry it enough, just turns into a mushy pile of rust. So don't use a whole bun if you don't need to.

 

[colu41]

I use to use make up pads just to get the oxides off. The after a few cycles of that, then go to the 1500 SC.
But I found this stuff in my garage. Its sort of like polish soaked wool. Tried it out and works great!

 

[DukeHarley]

After we had talked I wondered what a blade would look like with polished flats and etched bevels. Actually look pretty cool like that. I'm glad you got it figured out.

Jay

 

[colu41]

After we had talked I wondered what a blade would look like with polished flats and etched bevels. Actually look pretty cool like that. I'm glad you got it figured out.

Jay

On that subject, I made a blade awhile back with a blued bevel and hand sanded flats and clip. Was definitely different.

 

[Willie71]

Quick questions, how do you leave the blade smokey grey? I use 1500 carbide grit after etching and it's back to shiny steel.

Ferric chloride will etch to a grey. I use white vinegar, then lemon juice for a hybrid polish. I use an average of 8-10 etch cycles.