- Joined
- May 10, 2016
- Messages
- 7
Hey All,
New to forums, glad to be here. I bought my first knife kit to get my feet wet, and it should be arriving today. I bought a Sarge Knives Stainless Drop Point kit for twenty bucks. I wanted to experiment with finishes since it's a premade kit and I'll probably mess it up anyway, so I was gonna acid etch and stone wash it. I've been doing some research the last few days (including some searches on this forum), but I've come up with some contrary information so I had a couple of questions. I'll cut to the chase:
Basically, I'm trying to replicate the finish of the incomparable Half Face Blades.
Something like this:
Or this:
Or this:
My plan is to flick a messy pattern of protectant on the blade, then give the edge a thin coating as evenly as possible, then cover the parts of the tang that will be hidden by the scale with protectant (no sense in eating away at parts I don't have to).
After it dries, I was going to loop some insulated wire through a tang hole, and submerge it in the etchant (likely Ferric Chloride). After it eats away enough to satisfy my fondness for patina, I would spray it down with ammonia to neutralize the acid, then wash it off with soap and water.
Then I was going to sand it down to even out any overly-harsh finish marks.
Then I was going to put it into a much weaker acid, like vinegar, to darken it overall while (hopefully!) still retaining the contrast of the harsher Ferric Chloride etch.
After that, I would chuck it into my fancy stonewashing tumbler (the Gatorade jug with a few rocks), give it a shake, and pull it out to do my final sanding and sharpening.
I know this is probably way overthinking it, and I'm probably going to screw it up in some way or another (best laid plans and all that), but I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything glaring. If I mess something up too bad, a new knife is a few days away and I'm itching to get going on my new hobby.
Thanks for any pointers you guys might be able to weigh in on - happy to be here!
-apatientwolf
New to forums, glad to be here. I bought my first knife kit to get my feet wet, and it should be arriving today. I bought a Sarge Knives Stainless Drop Point kit for twenty bucks. I wanted to experiment with finishes since it's a premade kit and I'll probably mess it up anyway, so I was gonna acid etch and stone wash it. I've been doing some research the last few days (including some searches on this forum), but I've come up with some contrary information so I had a couple of questions. I'll cut to the chase:
- For the acid etch, should I use Ferric Chloride, or can I get away with Vinegar? Heard conflicting reports (mainly that vinegar won't work well on Stainless).
- Is nail polish the best surface protectant, or should I use something else prior to submerging in my etchant?
- Should I use the protectant on the edge, or does it not really matter since I'm gonna be stonewashing afterwards anyway?
- Can I use any kind of insulated wire to secure the blade? Was going to just use a length of cheap wrapping wire like this one looped through the tang hole so I can fish it back out. Just don't want it to react with the etchant.
- To neutralize my etchant, should I spray with ammonia or is this a bad idea?
- To stonewash, I was going to put the blade in a Gatorade jug with a few rocks, wrap it (the jug) in a towel, and shake. Good enough?
Basically, I'm trying to replicate the finish of the incomparable Half Face Blades.
Something like this:
Or this:
Or this:
My plan is to flick a messy pattern of protectant on the blade, then give the edge a thin coating as evenly as possible, then cover the parts of the tang that will be hidden by the scale with protectant (no sense in eating away at parts I don't have to).
After it dries, I was going to loop some insulated wire through a tang hole, and submerge it in the etchant (likely Ferric Chloride). After it eats away enough to satisfy my fondness for patina, I would spray it down with ammonia to neutralize the acid, then wash it off with soap and water.
Then I was going to sand it down to even out any overly-harsh finish marks.
Then I was going to put it into a much weaker acid, like vinegar, to darken it overall while (hopefully!) still retaining the contrast of the harsher Ferric Chloride etch.
After that, I would chuck it into my fancy stonewashing tumbler (the Gatorade jug with a few rocks), give it a shake, and pull it out to do my final sanding and sharpening.
I know this is probably way overthinking it, and I'm probably going to screw it up in some way or another (best laid plans and all that), but I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything glaring. If I mess something up too bad, a new knife is a few days away and I'm itching to get going on my new hobby.
Thanks for any pointers you guys might be able to weigh in on - happy to be here!
-apatientwolf
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