Etching logos

[Bibble]

How do you etch logos onto the blade? Is it an electric arc-etching pen or do you use an acid?

 

I've got a touchmark but it's kind of imprecise.

Anyone care to inform me on this?

[Matt Bower]

How do you etch logos onto the blade? Is it an electric arc-etching pen or do you use an acid?

 

I've got a touchmark but it's kind of imprecise.

Anyone care to inform me on this?

 

To me, electric "arc-etching" would mean electrical discharge machining, or EDM. I imagine that'd work fine for logos, but it'd be big-time overkill.

 

Electrochemical etching -- probably the pens you're referring to -- just uses electricity and an electrolyte solution to cause steel to rust very fast. You can buy one of the little commercial systems or make your own fairly simply. Google around for plans. Good templates are the hard part.

 

Acid etching would certainly work, but as far as I know it's slightly more dangerous and a bigger hassle.

Edited March 20, 2008 by Matt Bower

[Christoph Alpermann]

Hi Bibble,

 

there are a lot of ways to etch any kind of pattern onto a blade.

You may want to check out Ariels approach to it.

 

Others use some sort of electric equipment (maybe someone can explain this here).

 

I have tried the classic way once on a scrap piece of 5160:

 

Get yourself some:

 

Graphic Asphalt

Beeswax

Tiny metalpot

Heatsource (candle...)

Needles

 

Mix the Asphalt 1:2 with the wax and heat both to complete solution.

Warm the perfectly degreased blade over boiling water and apply a thin layer of the hot asphalt mixture with somekind of spatula or knife.

Heat the spatula to get the coat even thinner - takes some practice but you want to get it as thin as possible (see-through is perfect).

Let the whole thing cool to room temperature.

 

Now you are free to carve any kind of drawing onto the blade with a needle or such.

When the coat is thin enough this feels mostly like drawing on paper.

Take a heated needle to correct any mishaps.

 

If you want to take off larger pieces of asphalt you may want to draw the outline with a needle and the put the knife into the deepfreezer for about 30 min. this will harden the asphalt enough for you to chip out the before outlined piece without leaving any residue.

 

When you´re finished, dip the whole thing into Ferric for maybe 30 min. (the longer, the deeper the etch gets) while taking care that the bubbles are shaken off the surface as often as possible by simply knocking the glass onto the ground or so (The classic way is using a feather to brush the bubbles off).

 

Neutralize with bakingsoda, rinse in cold water, scrape the asphalt off...and you´re done.

 

Its a lot of work, but also some serious fun (medieval alchemist feeling, you know? ).

 

Heretics say, that nail laquer and eddings work aswell.

 

Also you can look for an etching pen which will write with some sort of etching solution directly on the steel.

 

 

Hope this was some help.

 

 

Regards,

 

Christoph

[Dale Huckabee]

Do a web search for Etch-o-matic. it is fairly inexpensive and you can make your own stencils. I have one that I have used for several years

 

Dale

[B. Norris]

Here are two useful links.

Mickley Knives

Chris Crawford

 

~Bruce~

[Beau Erwin]

I'd bought an electroetching machine from Ron Claiborne that I have been using, and it works great.

 

Along the same line as the acid etching the Christoph mentioned above, Another way of going about that wihout the use of the asphalt and wax is to go down to a local automotive decal place, and have them make you up some stencils in the size and font you want.

You then just apply the stencil, cover the rest of the blade in electrical tape and etch.

 

I did it on a recent blade except I used my electroetcher.

 

I've seen some tutorials on etching over on british blades where they made their own makeshift etcher from some wire, clips, a car battery, some etching solution, and stencils like I mentioned.

 

If you wanna see an example of the stencil method Ariel Salaverria does a similar method when etching his name onto his damascus blades.

 

Variety of methods.

[dragoncutlery]

some where i found a tutorial on using a computer power supply to etch it worked a lot better than the $60 monster i put together from some online plans it kept eating the stencil's and barely etched but the power supply works so well its like night and day and i had one siting on the bench just waiting for me to use it for some thing

[dragoncutlery]

i was asked for a link to this etching tutorial and well i cant find it

 

how ever i do have the time to post a photo and give a description of what i did so you can to i think some of the links tell you how to etch so ill just go in to how to make a cheep and effective etcher

 

take one power supply take one of the small power of shoots that have 2 blacks a red and a yellow and cut the yellow and one of the blacks off the plug now take the yellow wire and use it to atache to the steel that needs etching and the black to a hand piece

 

i used a brass plate with a wire soldered to it with a piece of wood to give me some thing to hold also it holds my pad i built my pad holder just like in the Chris Crawford link and i get my stencils from the ppl at etch-0-matic also i use there developer

 

for an etchent i use salt water to etch my mark and have been to a website that has used salt water to etch stainless steel (300) so it would be worth trying salt before buying special etchents (any one want to buy the special etchent that i got only used once)

 

second photo is of power supply first is close up of etch made with this system any questions just ask

Edited March 22, 2008 by dragoncutlery

[dragoncutlery]

logo in photo is just 3/4 of an inch long and i dont know how deep but its deep maybe .003 or better

[MrBaz]

i was asked for a link to this etching tutorial and well i cant find it

 

how ever i do have the time to post a photo and give a description of what i did so you can to i think some of the links tell you how to etch so ill just go in to how to make a cheep and effective etcher

 

take one power supply take one of the small power of shoots that have 2 blacks a red and a yellow and cut the yellow and one of the blacks off the plug now take the yellow wire and use it to atache to the steel that needs etching and the black to a hand piece

 

i used a brass plate with a wire soldered to it with a piece of wood to give me some thing to hold also it holds my pad i built my pad holder just like in the Chris Crawford link and i get my stencils from the ppl at etch-0-matic also i use there developer

 

for an etchent i use salt water to etch my mark and have been to a website that has used salt water to etch stainless steel (300) so it would be worth trying salt before buying special etchents (any one want to buy the special etchent that i got only used once)

 

second photo is of power supply first is close up of etch made with this system any questions just ask

 

So black wire -> Brass plate and yellow wire acts like a grounding strap attached to the metal to be etched? That etching looks impressive. Any instructions on how long you held it in place?

[dragoncutlery]

i kind of hold the pad on and tap the blade with the ground so it doesn't over heat the stencil and just keep doing it till it feels right i don't really have a set time for etching just try it on a test piece first to get the hang of it mabe time it and check the mark often

[MrBaz]

Any more pictures of your etching?