Plastidip

I've thought about dipping handles up to the bolster for protection while etching blades. Anyone try this or have any ideas about it?

If your thinking about this allowing you to submerge the whole knife safely, I wouldn't advise it. Plastidip is great stuff for insulating screwdrivers and making/building up grips on tools, but it doesn't really form an adhesive bond, it's more of a mechanical one. What I'm trying to say is I don't think etching fluid would have a problem getting under it. This is of course just an educated (thank god for spellcheck, I misspelled educated the first time:O) guess and I could be completely wrong (about the etching fluid, not about the bond thing). Hope that helps, let me know how it goes

I did quite a bit of testing with this stuff for waterproofing and the problem is that it's actually pretty porous when dry. Even multiple coats where not reliable. Sealing the pores with a few coats of ca glue helped, but was still not enough to trust with anything important.

Dave's method of wiping vs dunking worked very well for me. If you want to add a layer of safety, you could apply bees wax around the bolster area

I think I remember someone writing about making a dunking tube out of pvc pipe so they could submerge the blade without having to worry about the handle. Sounded like a good idea.

Yeah, I don't want to fully submerge the knife. Just wanted some extra protection for just in case purposes.

plastidip will flake off under use. ive used it on car surfaces and i think it would flake under heavy use.

ThEoRy said:

Yeah, I don't want to fully submerge the knife. Just wanted some extra protection for just in case purposes.

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Would probably work then, don't know what it'd do to any finish on the handle though. Lately I've been covering my handles in plastic wrap then covering the plastic wrap in painters tape. The tape protects the plastic wrap, the plastic wrap keeps the tape residue (and any other fluids) off of my handles.