Pits in Cable Damascus

[cactusforge]

What is the cause of pits in cable damascus, I am etching with FC 10 min at a time then scrubbing off with a scotch bright pad and soapy water I get the pits before the pattern comes up, Is this normal. Gib

[Ed Caffrey]

Hey Gib,
Do you by chance have a picture of what it looks like? My instinct tells me that if the pits are coming up before the pattern, then it might be tiny cold shuts or bits of dirt that didn't come out during the "burn out". I think for all of the years that I made cable, I only managed one or two "pitless" blades. That was one of the reasons that I slowly got away from cable. I still do it on occassion, but am very picky abou the cable I use. I has to be close to new, and have individual wires at least .050.

[cactusforge]

Ed, I don't have any pictures of the blade but I think that the dirt can be ruled out as I only use new cable, the new and improved plow share stuff and it is taken apart and cleaned with brake cleaning fluid and the little plastic strip that says that it is made in Korea is removed. The cable is about 1 1/4" Dia. and I don't know the individual wires were close if not larger than .050.
I am going to re grind the blade and start over with the etch and then see if I can get a pic.
This blade started out as a 9" bowie I will be Lucky if I have a 6" blade when I am finished.
Gib

[raker]

Gib,
You might check your acid. I had that problem and made a new batch of ferric chloride using distilled water in a 3 to 1 ratio of water to acid. If you don't keep your acid covered or it gets used a lot, it may do that. I have heard of some that would breath on the blade to get a light moisture film before etching. It may help on getting the spots out.