- Joined
- Nov 5, 2016
- Messages
- 378
I am making an attempt at my first partially quenched then etched blade to show a temper a line. This is also my first attempt at using an acid etch to do anything other than eat off forge scale. I've made two attempts based on what I've read that have been a miss so far, so I thought it was time to check for thoughts and ideas before attempting a third run. The knife was forged from 1080, cleaned up on the grinder, then heat treated in the forge with a partial quench in preheated canola oil. After heat treat, the knife did a 24 hour vinegar bath to remove scale. It then got some finishing work on the grinder and was hand sanded to 600 grit. Following that it was cleaned and soaked in coffee for 24 hours (I had read coffee gives a better temper line etch than vinegar). This was the end result:
Obviously not a very good etch. The temper line is there, but very faint. It also came out very splotchy. I do not know if the splotchyness was a failure of not getting fully degreased or an issue in hand sanding uniformity. I decided to have another go trying with vinegar, so a hand sanded back down with 320 and worked my way back up to 600. Then I did a 24 hour vinegar etch, to get this result:
I then followed a few different instructions I had found and hand sanded with 2000 grit to end up with this:
The line washed out a good bit, and really all that was left was evidence that I had likely over etched because of the pitting. I stopped here because it just kept looking worse the more I sanded. It's going to need to go back to the grinder to start over again.
My thinking is attempt one was perhaps under etched, and attempt two was over etched. The only issue is if I were to have etched any less then hand sanded with 2000 grit I'm pretty sure it would just wipe out the temper line completely. I feel like there is something I'm missing or incorrectly understanding, so I'm hoping someone can point me in the proper direction for attempt #3. If I keep messing up I'll eventually have a fillet knife!
Obviously not a very good etch. The temper line is there, but very faint. It also came out very splotchy. I do not know if the splotchyness was a failure of not getting fully degreased or an issue in hand sanding uniformity. I decided to have another go trying with vinegar, so a hand sanded back down with 320 and worked my way back up to 600. Then I did a 24 hour vinegar etch, to get this result:
I then followed a few different instructions I had found and hand sanded with 2000 grit to end up with this:
The line washed out a good bit, and really all that was left was evidence that I had likely over etched because of the pitting. I stopped here because it just kept looking worse the more I sanded. It's going to need to go back to the grinder to start over again.
My thinking is attempt one was perhaps under etched, and attempt two was over etched. The only issue is if I were to have etched any less then hand sanded with 2000 grit I'm pretty sure it would just wipe out the temper line completely. I feel like there is something I'm missing or incorrectly understanding, so I'm hoping someone can point me in the proper direction for attempt #3. If I keep messing up I'll eventually have a fillet knife!