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The Newbies Arena Are you new to knife making? Here is all the help you will need. |
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#1
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etching
PLEASE NEED SOME HELP
I'm trying to etch a cruwear blade but it isn't working very well. One side of blade is turning a dark grey(what i want) but not uniformly it's patchy. the other side isn't greying at all might as well have it sitting in water. I also tried creme of tartar it didn't work at all. Are these to weak for this steel, should I give up and use acid(feric, muratic, or nitric)? Am i doing something wrong? THANKS IN ADVANCE |
#2
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Did you make sure the blade was very clean? Acetone first, grease cutting dish soap scrub, then do not touch the blade with hands after. That is the part I always forget.
__________________ "Many are chosen, but few are Pict" "The doer alone, learneth" NT Neo-Devo |
#3
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Freshly sanded, palmolive dish soap, comet, then palmolive dish soap, dried with paper towels, didn't touch with hands into vinegar. When I took it out and neutralized with baking soda alot of the areas that hadn't turned gray/black did then but still incomplete coverage. Do I need to sand back down and start back at square one before acetone, dish soap, etch? Thank you for the help hammerdownnow i do appreciate it.
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#4
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What are you using for your etchant, the creme of tartar stuff? I'm not very familier with crewwear, it might have properties that make etching difficult, like stainlessness. One thing I noticed though is that you said one side was effected and the other not. Did you have it laying flat in the etchant? You want to have it vertical so both sides etch evenly, either on the edge, on the spine, or point down. Etching is often a two steps forward one step back kinda thing, repeated etchings with cleaning off the oxides in between often gets better results then just one etch.
__________________ ~Andrew W. "NT Cough'n Monkey" Petkus |
#5
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I have worked with cruwear and it is a beast, after HTreatment. First try handsanding to 400 or 600 grit, opening the grain. Try to etch again with muriatic, be sure to clean well before. I have never been able to get a dark etch on cruwear, just light to medium gray. Cruwear has some additives in the the steel which make it very hard to etch, but make it a one heck of a steel. Please let us know how it goes.
__________________ Ken (wwjd) http://www.wacoknives.com "One Nation Under God" |
#6
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Ok I rubbed with steel wool, then dishsaop, then acetone, dishsoap again, etch, neutralize. got much better coverage this time but have some areas that are still bright and shiny. Mostly lines and a few splotches. They seem to be the same pattern of the discoloration after the HT. Anybody got suggestions on how to get rid of these? I sanded to bright shiny metal after HT. Do i need to sand more or is this fixable. The muratic didn't do anymore than the vinegar did. Thank again everyone for the help.
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#7
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It could be that due to blade geometry or something, the blade self diff-hardened. If there's diff hardening, even if there's not a clean hamon line, the hard and soft parts will respond to the etch differently. I donno for sure if that's the problem, but it kinda sounds like it to me. You might just not be able to get an even etch on it.
__________________ ~Andrew W. "NT Cough'n Monkey" Petkus |
#8
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well i finally got it to etch. the streaks are still there just a little different shade then the rest of the blade. you have to look very close at the right angle to see them now. kind of a neat pattern this way. blade is a medium charcoal grey/black fairly dark color. thanks a bunch for all the help folks. KandS_knives i don't know if this is darker than what you've been getting but if you want to know what all i did let me know. again thanks for all the help everyone.
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blade, forge, knife, knives |
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