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SBG Sword Forum :: Sword Smithing, Customization and Design :: Sword Customization Projects :: Homemade Acid Etching Fun Page 1 of 3 » Jump to page   Go     Author Topic: Homemade Acid Etching Fun (Read 4,882 times) Brendan Olszowy Manufacturers and Vendors Review Points: 5 member is offline These people are kindly to beasts, for they are a good and wise folk - Gandalf; ROTK Joined: Mar 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 3,812 Location: Western Australia Karma: 327 Homemade Acid Etching Fun « Thread Started on Jun 15, 2007, 10:32pm » Hi All. I just thought I'd show off my latest project. Acid Etching the fuller of my Hanwei Practical Hand and Half. These are my first couple of attempts, If there is anyone reading this that has much experience at etching I'd like to hear from you, see your work, and ask some tips, etc. Cheers Brendan « Last Edit: Jun 15, 2007, 10:37pm by Brendan Olszowy » Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Swords you like! Brenno's SBG Sub Forum, Swordmaking Tutes etc. Click here n Have a geez. Mark Mowrey Swashbuckler Review Points: 5 member is offline Joined: Dec 2006 Gender: Male Posts: 494 Location: Ohio Karma: 60 Re: Homemade Acid Etching Fun « Reply #1 on Jun 16, 2007, 6:07am » Those look great. Excellent work. Got any how to or etching process pictures? Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged You can't control the wind but you can adjust your sails. jpfranco Guest Re: Homemade Acid Etching Fun « Reply #2 on Jun 16, 2007, 6:37am » That looks very neet my friend. Karma to you for the work and thanks for sharing « Last Edit: Jun 16, 2007, 1:57pm by jpfranco » Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Brendan Olszowy Manufacturers and Vendors Review Points: 5 member is offline These people are kindly to beasts, for they are a good and wise folk - Gandalf; ROTK Joined: Mar 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 3,812 Location: Western Australia Karma: 327 Re: Homemade Acid Etching Fun « Reply #3 on Jun 16, 2007, 7:06am » Quote: Those look great. Excellent work. Got any how to or etching process pictures? I could put a few together, If you are interested. I'm not master but a bit of trial and error has helped me learn a few lessons in what to avoid. Its not hard but very tedious. Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Swords you like! Brenno's SBG Sub Forum, Swordmaking Tutes etc. Click here n Have a geez. Dan Davis Blacksmithing Moderator member is offline Joined: Jun 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 1,302 Karma: 89 Re: Homemade Acid Etching Fun « Reply #4 on Jun 16, 2007, 7:25am » Quote: Quote: Those look great. Excellent work. Got any how to or etching process pictures? I could put a few together, If you are interested. I'm not master but a bit of trial and error has helped me learn a few lessons in what to avoid. Its not hard but very tedious. Please do. Maybe we should talk to Paul about putting up a "Tutorilas/How-To" forum. Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Dan Davis http://davisironworks.ddcsltd.net Brendan Olszowy Manufacturers and Vendors Review Points: 5 member is offline These people are kindly to beasts, for they are a good and wise folk - Gandalf; ROTK Joined: Mar 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 3,812 Location: Western Australia Karma: 327 Re: Homemade Acid Etching Fun « Reply #5 on Jun 16, 2007, 10:32am » Good idea you should pop it in his suggestions thread. Somewhere to gather all the sharpening, customisations, maintenence, how to type tips. Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Swords you like! Brenno's SBG Sub Forum, Swordmaking Tutes etc. Click here n Have a geez. Brendan Olszowy Manufacturers and Vendors Review Points: 5 member is offline These people are kindly to beasts, for they are a good and wise folk - Gandalf; ROTK Joined: Mar 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 3,812 Location: Western Australia Karma: 327 Re: Homemade Acid Etching Fun « Reply #6 on Aug 15, 2007, 8:38am » Hey all, I’ll put a brief step by step on how I did my acid etching, for those of you who are very patient and creative. I haven’t learnt any proper technique, this is just what I found worked through experience. If someone can offer a proven technique that would make it easier for me I’d love you to post it. Please! Step one: Warm the blade up if it’s winter over a low gas burner, to about 30 degrees C, 90 degrees F. In summer not necessary. This helps the wax to smear on nice and smooth, not clumpy. Step two: Smear a candle onto the blade completely covering a wide area around the area to be etched – any gaps will get eaten into. The fuller works well as the acid can just pool there and stay, whereas it just runs off the bevels – be sure to get the ridges covered. Try and get a solid coating with no holes. If it leaves gaps or goes on clumpy see step 1. Step three: Use a sharpened pencil to draw the design you want into the wax, make sure you go through all the wax. If you make a mistake use the back of your finger nail to firmly press wax back onto the steel. You may have to sharpen the pencil again if the tip gets too broad. Metal tips are too fine and sharp – wood feathers – pencils are best. Step four: once you are happy with the design its time to drip the acid on. I use rice wine vinegar, to which I add a small amount of fish tank acidifier to increase its acidity – don’t go too acid or it will strip the wax too fast. Put your finger over the hole and just run a string of drops along the design. Then get a tiny drop of dishwashing detergent on a piece of fine wire or a heavy pin; this is used to break the surface tension and alow you to smear the acid evenly over the design – only drag it over the vinegar’s surface and don’t disturb the wax, it will pull the vinegar out over the patern. Make sure the blade is level or the vinegar will run out the end of the fuller. (you want to avoid acid running up past the guard onto the tang - you can seal the junction with epoxy, or temporarily with a smear of grease.) Once it’s right walk away and stop fiddling with it. This will also make it less interesting to cats, who will hopefully leave the job alone over night while it eats away. If you do this in the morning you may like to check it in the afternoon. It will be bubbly – you can use the pin to drag the bubbles away, but you might stuff it up. If it’s warm the vinegar may evaporate, so you may like to add some more. After about 12 to 15 hours however the wax will have broken up and lifted. Get a cloth and wipe the blade completely clean. Don’t use any polish or you’ll scrub the design off. At this stage the design will be a blackened etching on the metal, but won’t be engraved in. You can oil it now and hang it up which will add a picture, but it will polish off if you polish the blade. This is the bit you’ll love: Go back to step one and repeat. Now you have the design there as a template you’ll be able to see through the wax. You will actually need to do the process about 5 times to get a good engraving which will endure sanding, polishing or scrubbing. It gets easier after two goes as there will be a channel forming which will help guide your pencil. If I think of any more tips I’ll update as I think of it. If anyone does it please share some pictures with us, and let us know what you learned. Cheers:) « Last Edit: Sept 1, 2007, 2:27am by Brendan Olszowy » Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Swords you like! Brenno's SBG Sub Forum, Swordmaking Tutes etc. Click here n Have a geez. Matt993f.o.d Manufacturers and Vendors member is offline Ash Green Forge Joined: Apr 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 2,069 Location: UK Karma: 56 Re: Homemade Acid Etching Fun « Reply #7 on Aug 15, 2007, 9:27am » Cool. What sort of wax do you use, in general? Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged www.mmoc.org.uk 993FOD- 1960 Morris Minor Brendan Olszowy Manufacturers and Vendors Review Points: 5 member is offline These people are kindly to beasts, for they are a good and wise folk - Gandalf; ROTK Joined: Mar 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 3,812 Location: Western Australia Karma: 327 Re: Homemade Acid Etching Fun « Reply #8 on Aug 15, 2007, 9:44am » Just a big green candle that was laying around. I just break chunks off it and rub it on firmly. Are you gonna have a go? The first application takes about half an hour or so. The subsequent ones about 25 minutes (coz the drawing is done), given I was doing about 5 inches of pattern. I'm pretty finicky so its tedious. If you've got parkinsons disease you can forget it. Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Swords you like! Brenno's SBG Sub Forum, Swordmaking Tutes etc. Click here n Have a geez. Brett P Gamesmaster member is offline 1st dan Kobudo, 4th kyu Ken-Sei-Kan[k4r] Joined: May 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 1,452 Location: NSW, Australia Karma: 27 Re: Homemade Acid Etching Fun « Reply #9 on Aug 15, 2007, 6:45pm » Great advice. Thanks! Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged tsafa Swordmaster member is offline SCA Fighter. Experience is Everything. Joined: Dec 2006 Gender: Male Posts: 3,203 Location: X-NYC Karma: 106 Re: Homemade Acid Etching Fun « Reply #10 on Aug 28, 2007, 11:13am » Looks awesome. Thanks for posting how you did it. « Last Edit: Aug 28, 2007, 11:15am by tsafa » Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged No athlete/youth can fight tenaciously who has never received any blows: he must see his blood flow and hear his teeth crack under the fist of his adversary, and when he is thrown to the ground he must fight with all his might and not loose courage... Anyone who can do that, can engage in battle confidently. Roger of Hoveden, 1174-1201 Charles Knight member is offline Joined: Aug 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 124 Location: Arkansas Karma: 4 Re: Homemade Acid Etching Fun « Reply #11 on Sept 5, 2007, 11:31pm » Nice work Brenno those etchings look professional. I appreciate the "How To" info it might come in handy one day. I like to personalize my things it just makes them mine. Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Charles dirtydan Man at Arms member is offline Joined: Sept 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 19 Karma: 0 Re: Homemade Acid Etching Fun « Reply #12 on Sept 6, 2007, 10:42pm » Some additional notes on etching. You can use just about anything as a resist: sharpie marker, tape, paint, laquer, wax, etc. Possibly the best acid to use on steel would be hydrochloric (H2SO4), but you would need a heavy duty resist and a good deal of caution. PLEASE DO NOT try this on a sword first time out as I haven't tested it yet. Something less drastic would be ferric chloride. Remember that if you have to stop the process you can't just wash it off with water; you'll have to neutralize the acid with a base such as ammonia. That's all I can say without digging though my books... Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Brendan Olszowy Manufacturers and Vendors Review Points: 5 member is offline These people are kindly to beasts, for they are a good and wise folk - Gandalf; ROTK Joined: Mar 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 3,812 Location: Western Australia Karma: 327 Re: Homemade Acid Etching Fun « Reply #13 on Sept 7, 2007, 4:38am » Hey Dan, thanks. Have you done any etching on armour / weapons? Would love to see your creations. Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Swords you like! Brenno's SBG Sub Forum, Swordmaking Tutes etc. Click here n Have a geez. dirtydan Man at Arms member is offline Joined: Sept 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 19 Karma: 0 Re: Homemade Acid Etching Fun « Reply #14 on Sept 8, 2007, 3:45pm » I've only done etching work on non-ferreous metals, but the principles still apply. Sorry I can't be of more help. 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