Acid etching kitchen knives ?

A

A-V

Member
Hi,

I'm experimenting a bit with acid as I found a local place that carries muriatic acid.

Wanting to see how it looked on a stainless kitchen knife got me thinking of a few questions that I can't seem to answer :


  1. If the residue of the etching is to fall-off at some point, isn't this acid-rust as toxic as it can be ?
  2. Is it a must to "neutralize" the acid after etching on stainless ?
  3. Can you buff the steel once it has been etched or will it remove all of the etching ?
  4. Should you use electricity when you're etching a whole blade or is that only for logo's ?
  5. Is it dumb to etch stainless ? (It's mostly meant to "stabilize" carbon-steel, right?)

Any answers would be helpful !
Feel free to throw any links to good reads about this too

Thanks
 
I have just recently been acid etching high quality SS LIKE CPM154 using testers model car paint and stencils or just free handing to get interesting patterns, I LOVE it, have gotten many compliments and some very pretty results and it is Fun! But I use ferric chloride / vinegar mix same as I use for Damascus. It takes awhile (30min - 1hr) and I check the blade periodically . I do neutralize in windex and baking soda just a few seconds. You can lightly sand it, or buff it and no , it does NOT rub off after you clean it off well,. The key is to experiment on scrap steel until you know how to get what you want. Some of the you tube videos help. I certainly don't do it on every blade, just the ones that I think it will look good on and usually not the real higher end knives. I havnt had anyone say they didn't like it. Must practice a lot first. Hope this helps
 
60 percent ferric chloride 40 percent vinegar. That's what I was taught and also told by Alabama Damascus , but I usually fudge just a little and put a little more Ferric chloride than that. I'm guessing maybe 70/30 but that's just my subjective decision. I like to etch deep and dark . I personally don't want too much vinegar to rely on and the stainless has to be harder to etch. I have no experience with muriatic acid but I am no expert. Lookup Mike Carter you tube acid etch of Damascus. He gets real beauty although I know you are talking about SS . And again, maybe I'm lucky, but I think I have gotten some good results.
 
Also, no I don't think it is dumb to etch SS, I find it VERY creative. If I can figure out how to do it I could show some pictures of what I have done so far or maybe the easiest way is by e mail (kurt51@bellsouth.net) if you etch deep enough it is actually a 3d pattern you can feel as well as see.
 
I went to the link you gave and uploaded some pictures, but don't know how to post them here. ( Very limited computer skills)
 
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