@raggedyman
Dannngggg, That is looking very nice! Great work!
I also had this issue with some of my knives. I have found that ferric and nitric will both smear and end up looking ugly no matter what you do. My solution to this is using a combination of ferric (To somewhat pre-etch the surface) and a special mixture of oxalic acid to deposit oxides on the surface. The oxalic makes an extremely durable finish and is also very good for larger pieces as it is a rubbed on acid instead of a dipped acid. Below is the preparation and use of the oxalic.
For the oxalic acid, combine distilled water and powdered oxalic acid (Commonly known as wood bleach at the hardware store) until the saturation point (No more acid is absorbed into the water and crystals remain on the bottom). Next add a bit of dish soap (Reduce surface tension of the water and ensure that it covers the blade evenly) and some isopropyl alcohol. I do not have exact measurements because I do not believe it is necessary. Just measure with your heart lol (Just a squeeze or 2 of each, soap and rubbing alcohol). After all of this is done, add steel wool to the solution. If all of it dissolves, add some more and keep doing this until no more is dissolved. This creates an Fe2/Fe3 solution that will deposit oxides on the surface of your piece. Quite similar to nugui if you are familiar with Japanese sword polishing. (This process was originally taken from Peter Burt)
Oxalic is a fairly weak acid and does not like to etch clean steel so I start off by dipping the blade in ferric until the pattern is easily visible and then pull it out and start wiping it with makeup pads soaked in the oxalic solution. Try to rub off all of the black oxides from the ferric and start really scrubbing with the makeup pad or cotton ball. It may look like you messed up the ferric finish but just keep rubbing and make sure that all surfaces stay wet. After a couple of minutes of rubbing, a nice etched surface will appear. Depending on how dark you want the final blade to look, adjust the time spent with oxalic.
@raggedyman
Dannngggg, That is looking very nice! Great work!
I also had this issue with some of my knives. I have found that ferric and nitric will both smear and end up looking ugly no matter what you do. My solution to this is using a combination of ferric (To somewhat pre-etch the surface) and a special mixture of oxalic acid to deposit oxides on the surface. The oxalic makes an extremely durable finish and is also very good for larger pieces as it is a rubbed on acid instead of a dipped acid. Below is the preparation and use of the oxalic.
For the oxalic acid, combine distilled water and powdered oxalic acid (Commonly known as wood bleach at the hardware store) until the saturation point (No more acid is absorbed into the water and crystals remain on the bottom). Next add a bit of dish soap (Reduce surface tension of the water and ensure that it covers the blade evenly) and some isopropyl alcohol. I do not have exact measurements because I do not believe it is necessary. Just measure with your heart lol (Just a squeeze or 2 of each, soap and rubbing alcohol). After all of this is done, add steel wool to the solution. If all of it dissolves, add some more and keep doing this until no more is dissolved. This creates an Fe2/Fe3 solution that will deposit oxides on the surface of your piece. Quite similar to nugui if you are familiar with Japanese sword polishing. (This process was originally taken from Peter Burt)
Oxalic is a fairly weak acid and does not like to etch clean steel so I start off by dipping the blade in ferric until the pattern is easily visible and then pull it out and start wiping it with makeup pads soaked in the oxalic solution. Try to rub off all of the black oxides from the ferric and start really scrubbing with the makeup pad or cotton ball. It may look like you messed up the ferric finish but just keep rubbing and make sure that all surfaces stay wet. After a couple of minutes of rubbing, a nice etched surface will appear. Depending on how dark you want the final blade to look, adjust the time spent with oxalic.
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