[TheForge] Etching Damascus

[Washington, Aubrey O.]

Thank you Kenny, Dan, and Roger.  I went by Radio Shack last night and the less-than-brilliant fellow behind the counter had never heard of PCB Cleaner, or circuit board etchant, or any other combination of similar concepts that I could come up with.  He looked it up on their computer and concluded that they no longer sell the stuff by itself, only in a circuit board kit that comes with a bunch of stuff I didn't want.  And, I would have to order it.
 
Now, I have no confidence that he knew what he was talking about, but I knew I wasn't going to get the stuff from him.  So I went searching for murriatic acid in the pool supply area of a large supermarket.  They didn't have murriatic acid but they did have sodium bisulfate (27% solution) in a product called pH Minus, so I got that.  (They also had a 92% powder in a much larger container.)
 
Back home, I couldn't find the acetone so I cleaned the blade with denatured alcohol, soaked the blade in straight 27% sodium bisulfate for 30 minutes swishing it around occasionally, rinsed with water, neutralized with baking soda, rinsed again, thin coat of gun oil.  This worked just fine.  The pattern came out very nicely.
 
Tonight I plan to mount the blade on the handle I made of deer leg bone and copper.
 
Thanks for the advice.
 
Aubrey

________________________________

From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net on behalf of Dan Tull
Sent: Mon 11/20/2006 5:25 PM
To: Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Etching Damascus



My bottle says PCB cleaner.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger R Degner" <rog781 at means.net>
To: "'Sponsored by ABANA'" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, November 20, 2006 6:12 PM
Subject: RE: [TheForge] Etching Damascus


> You need Ferric chloride
> Don't have the radio shack bottle handy to see what the name is but
> isn't it PC enchant.
> Mix the radio shack bottle to 4 parts water.  The Radio shack stuff is
> already diluted so if you by dry ferric chloride you have to dilute it
> more
>
> Roger R Degner
>
>
> Okay, I know you guys are gonna say, "This boy hasn't been paying
> attention all these year!"  But, here goes.  I just finish my first
> pattern welded blade and I'm ready to treat it to make the pattern stand
> out.   Here are my questions:
>
> What is the name of the circuit board etchant one can buy at Radio
> Shack? What is the procedure for using this stuff on a blade?  (Straight
> up or diluted?  How long?  How or if to neutralize?)
>
> I know all of these questions have been answered many times.  But I
> wasn't paying attention because I hadn't made my first blade yet.
> Sheech!
>
> Aubrey
>
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