Ferric chloride how do I mix it

wall e

wall e

Well-Known Member
Am wanting suggestions or advice of how to mix the ferric chloride to etch a blade black.
 
I mix mine 4:1 with distilled water. That's 4 parts water to 1 part Ferric Chloride. Store it in something plastic. Add the acid to the water, not the water to the acid.
 
I add about 35% distilled white vinegar to mine. That seems to work quite well.

Both ways will work, just as quick, its preference really.
 
Sweet. I have a plastic gallon jar to use. Is the largest securely sealable container I could find
 
The trick to etching with ferric concerning the "mix".....the more diluted with distilled water, the longer it takes to etch, but the "cleaner the etch comes out. 3 or 4:1 dilution is generally considered the best ratio for a good etch, without taking too long. Personally, I keep both 3:1 and 6:1 in the shop.....3:1 is what I use for etching damascus, and I use the 6:1 for etching "straight" steel blades. I found out a long time ago that there is a very fine line on straight steel blades between getting just the right "etch", and having the blade come out all pitted up....so gradually I started diluting until I got to 6:1 for straight steels.

The most essential part of etching anything in ferric is CLEAN. First thing I do is put on latex gloves, then clean the blade(s) with acetone, then with windex. Make sure the windex is COMPLETELY dry/gone (if a single drop of windex gets into your ferric, it will "kill" it.) I once "killed" a whole tank of ferric because I sprayed a blade with windex near the tank....and got overspray into the tank. I tried for two days to etch that blade (that would not etch) before I realized what I'd done.

If you're only gona use it "every now and then" and do smaller blades, a gallon plastic jar will work fine. If you're going to be using ferric all the time like I do, build yourself a container out of 4" diameter PVC pipe. Cut a piece of 4" PVC a few inches longer then you ever thing you'll need (eventually you'll need to build a longer one :) ) Glue a PVC cap on one end, and a threaded fitting for one of the "clean out" lids on the other. I built two (but now I have serval between the two shops)....one for ferric, and another for TSP (neutralizes the ferric). Mine are 20" long, and are secured in a holder bolted to the edge of my finish bench.
 
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If you don't want to mess around you can go Natural! Not naked itching. Just use Vinegar.

I buy the quart or gallon size of Heinz or really whatever brand is cheapest of Apple Vinegar because I'm not eating it!:biggrin:.

Works great. If its winter I warn the vinegar in the Microwave just a little and then leave the blade in a hour or so, checking it every 20 minutes or so for a Hamon type etch on carbon steel.

If its Carbon Damascus I sometimes leave it in over night if I want a deep etching. You can do this inside and when you are done just dump it down the sink. I like it because there is no chance of a Biohazard spill or pets or kiddies getting into in etc.

When I am etching any kind of stainless steel Damascus its time to use mix a batch of Ferric Chloride out in the shop because stales will laugh at vinegar as an etchent.

l put a skull and bones on the plastic container for good measure and make darn sure you always put the cap back on the Ferric Chloride container.

I had a friend that's passed on that left the top off of a one gallon glass jar of Ferric Chloride and closed up his shop in the heat of August for a two week vacation.

When he came back the chloride fumes has frosted one side of about 100-300 dollars of carbon steels that he had as stock in the shop.

He said some was ruined and the rest was a lot of work to clean up.

Have fun!
 
I am going to be etching straight steels till I get the damaskus and brave making cable damaskus
 
When I need the darkest blade I first use vinegar. Neutralize it in dish soap water, rinse clean, and dry. Then I repeat the process with ferric mixed 1:4 with distilled, use Windex to neutralize follow the rest of the procedure. I repeat the process until I get it as dark as in need it. My final step is spraying it with WD40, hang it up to dry. Followed by polishing it with 0000 steel wool once dry to even out the effect.
 
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I use boiling vinager in a pan. you don't want to leave in on too long in the heat. But it blackens a blade in about 10 minutes. I usually nutralize it in the sink under running water and scrub with a steel wool to dull it down to a gray with pretty good results. I've never left it black but I suppose you could. But it's true that you can get a pretty decent hamon on a blade this way. I only do it this way because I work out of the garage and vinager won't hurt anything but the vegetation in my yard. The leftovers are a great weed killer.

The only problem with these methods is that it can scratch right off with use. It's not very permanent. I've found cold bluing is blacker and a little tougher. I use birchwood casy super blue if I want something darker. I've had pretty good success with it so far.
Those of you that have done it, does the ferric / vinegar method get darker or provide a better finish than the cold blue? I'm interested in that if so because of the "shiney" factor with cold blue if you don't sandblast or stonewash first.
 
N.N said:
I use boiling vinager in a pan. you don't want to leave in on too long in the heat. But it blackens a blade in about 10 minutes. I usually nutralize it in the sink under running water and scrub with a steel wool to dull it down to a gray with pretty good results. I've never left it black but I suppose you could. But it's true that you can get a pretty decent hamon on a blade this way. I only do it this way because I work out of the garage and vinager won't hurt anything but the vegetation in my yard. The leftovers are a great weed killer.

The only problem with these methods is that it can scratch right off with use. It's not very permanent. I've found cold bluing is blacker and a little tougher. I use birchwood casy super blue if I want something darker. I've had pretty good success with it so far.
Those of you that have done it, does the ferric / vinegar method get darker or provide a better finish than the cold blue? I'm interested in that if so because of the "shiney" factor with cold blue if you don't sandblast or stonewash first.
Click to expand...

With certain steels you can get ebony black with vinegar/ferric chloride. I don't know how the durability stacks up to cold blue though; the oxidation from the ferric chloride is tougher than oxidation from vinegar.
 
Maybe it's just me, but I would never recommend using cold blue.....I have never seen it used on anything, and it come out with what I consider an acceptable finish.....light and dark spots, smeared looking, blotchy.......for a lack of a better way to say, it just looks very unprofessional to me.
 
Currently with the tools I have at hand it would be to blacken or make the blade non reflective. Tactical to be exact.
 
I recently wanted to get FC but only found the solid FC so I got it just in case, was real cheap
problem is I don't know how to mix it (that I can figure out from any source online probably) but the real issue if mix it till saturation, is that what i dilute 3:1 or 4:1 or whatever ratio?
to rephrase, the PCB most ppl are using, is saturated or actually diluted?

thanks

Edit: walle e, i've tried several etching and if all you want to do is eliminate teh shine vinegar or coca cola could do the job, they are slow but as mentioned if you warm them they are much faster (but would just turn the blade to dark/dull gray not black)
my experiecne with FC is very limited, finished etching two blades yesterday, one was k100 it turned almost black but still had some sorta of shine to it (not sure how yet) and the other was 5155 and I did three layers but in the last one i forgot it inside for a bit and it turned really dark gray (no shine)
 
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