Re: Etching

Joseph Gwinn wrote:
In article <13dengm836htsb9@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
scutt <scutt@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I am helping my 11 year old nephew make his second knife ( First attempt won him 1st place at the Fair :-). I want to keep introducing new skills so the plan is to try etch in a simple design on this knife . The steel is an old leaf spring . Does anyone know what to use as a resist and which acid would work for this application ?

Resist: Bees wax or the tarry stuff used to paint cut surfaces where tree limbs once attached.

Etchant: Ferric Chloride

These things are sold at electronic supply houses for making printed circuit boards.

In the 1970s in Baltimore I used the wax plus ferric chloride approach to etch a friend's name into his knives - he worked as a cook, and wanted his knives to stay his.

A year later, he was going to work on his motorcycle and was stopped by a traffic cop, who found the knife roll and charged him with carrying a deadly weapon.

The Judge took one look at this 10" chef's knife with BARTLETT etched into the blade with 1" high letters, said that this was clearly a tradesman's tool, and dismissed the case.

Joe Gwinn

Thanks . I don't know of any electronic supply places any where near me but I will start checking tomorrow . Would there be much difference between this and hydrochloric acid ?
Ken Cutt
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