J.Arthur Loose

First pass on the etch. FullSizeRender.MOV

Lovely.

That thing is seriously fun.

Noice.

Cool.

Honing in with 400 grit. Starting to get crisp.

I started off with hot stamping, and between mis-strikes and grinding them out I decided that I hate them for blades. Fine for blacksmithing work, angry $#&*@& for blades. Thinking I’d like the etching stencils people use but have no clue what equip folks use to do it.

Say, for 20 years or whatever, I’ve been carving my mark with a flex shaft & graver’s ball, but I’d like to up it to something new as I’m starting over anyway. New mark inspired by my Sigewif badge, so I’ll probably want an etching process.

I realize this is an old thread, but the reason I use the 50/50 calcium / sodium mix because I can get them at the farm store for less than $20 and they work. I read a thing about the boric a long time ago and it made sense at the time, but I have no idea what it is now. Same with the graphite rod. I realistically fire these 4-5 times a year at most, but they’re still running absolutely fine 20 years later. I think I effectively changed the high temp salt once, mostly to fish out a dropped blade. I use Brownell Nitreblue for the low temp. Also inexpensive,

I can’t believe this thread is still going.

Had this 4-5mm inclusion that was killing me. Could have lived with it… you never know when you chase them… but luckily, this time, I nailed it. No flaws in the blade now. Feels good. On to edge refining & polishing for the etch.

No, it is one bar of rando, but it looks like three in the pic because of the fuller & two flat planes.

I do that now for each blade. Really helps.

Bringing the tip down to 1mm thickness down the last 8” or so, then polishing up for etch. Here’s a quick test etch. The original had evidence of layering, so I went with a pool and eye with a homogenous edge.

Had I known and been able I would have done this one. Noice!