Damascus Knives & Re-Etchng

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ThEoRy said:
I just did mt Tanaka 240 for the third time last night after my dishwasher decided to scrub it down with a brillo because he "thought it looked dirty".
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Yeah someone did that to my cast iron skillet once. "surprise we cleaned your nasty pan see it looks like new now"
I was speechless for about 30 seconds. Then they fled the house. :viking:
 
This happened the very day after a different dishwasher, although related, cleaned up my hiromoto petty real nice!! Handle too!! 5 hours of my life, gone.
 
Just saw the Hiromoto AS review that was recently posted and saw the etching job you did on it Dave. Very much insipred to have a go at doing it on my own Hiromoto AS. Thank you for the info.
 
OneS said:
Just saw the Hiromoto AS review that was recently posted and saw the etching job you did on it Dave. Very much insipred to have a go at doing it on my own Hiromoto AS. Thank you for the info.
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That wasn't my work (on that Hiro) but I'm glad that you were inspired to go for it on yours! :)
 
Sorry for bumping up this thread, but I thought this will be the best place to ask.
I want to etch some of my GF's father old stainless damascus knifes, but I cant the radio shack acid where I live.
What I can get easily is hydrochloric acid, which I heard can be used to for etching.
Before I do something stupid, I guessed it will be a smart move to assk you guys what do you think.
Should the hydrochloric acid work fine? If not, do you have any other method that doesn't include Ferric Chhloride?

Thanks in advance, Guy
 
guyskr said:
Sorry for bumping up this thread, but I thought this will be the best place to ask.
I want to etch some of my GF's father old stainless damascus knifes, but I cant the radio shack acid where I live.
What I can get easily is hydrochloric acid, which I heard can be used to for etching.
Before I do something stupid, I guessed it will be a smart move to assk you guys what do you think.
Should the hydrochloric acid work fine? If not, do you have any other method that doesn't include Ferric Chhloride?

Thanks in advance, Guy
Click to expand...

Hydrochloric should work. Ferric chloride is available on amazon from MG chemicals. I personally would use ferric over HCl (less corrosive, no fumes and less hazardous in general).
 
The problem is that I don't live in the USA and I'm afraid the post office won't like me getting some acids from over sea.
Should I use HCI just like I would with the ferric?
 
Old fashioned distilled vinegar will work to...just do it over and gain and rub off the reactive crud. A gallon of vinegar is cheap :)
 
I'd like to add some notes that are specifically for the a Hattori KD re-etch job....


1. The bolsters on these particular knives are nickel silver (AKA silver looking brass) and being such will easily turn nasty if the etchant touches them AND will bleed red streaks down onto the blade. Be sure to mask off these bolsters beforehand and do your best to stay away from them with the etchant.

And BTW, masking off bolsters isn't a bad idea for any knife being etched.

If you do happen to etch a bolster you're going to have to sand it back to the desired finish.



2. The maker's mark (red stamp) will disappear. To what degree this happens depends on how long the blade is etched, how well the mark was applied, and dumb luck. I can say for sure that the more time spent in the acid will greatly increase the likelihood that this mark will dissolve away.

I think it'd be great to coat this area with a resist like clear nail polish pre-etch but how exactly to do that without making it look like crap is something I can't help with, this is just an idea is all.
 
This worked great to re-etch my yoshihiro vg-10 damascus before I gift it to my dad. Thanks for the tutorial!
 
Hello,
Firstly I'd just like to thank you for posting a re-posting this guide. I've had a bottle of ferric chloride and varying grit sandpaper etc... sat on my shelf for about a year +. My knife was quite new back then so I wanted to get a bit more use out of it before I went ahead with the etch. Anyway I think I'm about ready to get it started. I just have a quick question regarding a suitable container to hold the acid.
I purchased a Rubbermaid tub which is on it's way in the post but I don't think it's going to be ideal https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003BH0090/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 I was basically going to cut a U shape in the end of the tub for the handle to sit in, being very careful with the vinegar/acid level I put in. And then submerge the knife as much as I could and wipe on acid on the parts close to the handle I couldn't submerge.
Thinking about it I would be better with a tall narrow container I could dip my knife in vertically but I'm having trouble finding a tub. Does anybody have any ideas where I could find one? My knife is 9 inches long. Or any other suggestions would be appreciated. If it involves submerging the entire knife though I will need a solution to protect the wooden handle, which I really don't want to damage.
 
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putting it sideways ... in a tub is not a good option with the handles on if you want to soak it in. but a good method to give it a good bath and light scrub

just a thought... if with handle on...best to look for a tall glass container...

a) a Lab glass container.. a tall one will work. will need a wide one enuf as the width of blade. My limited experience... seen a narrow one and cld fit in a sujihiki blade.

b) Closest that i can think of is to look for a tall large sake bottle and cut off the neck area of the bottle .. i humble refer you to youtube as there are quite a few channels as to how they wld cut it.

c) a certain of plastic tall plastic bottle that can hold vinegar. They come in plastic bottles anyway.

then suspend the knife on a string and submerge it in. adjust the string length to control depth it goes into the bottle..

can comment on concentrated/ strong acid... dont play with it as i can dispose of it safely as i do not want to corrode my plumbing pipes...


DO wear goggles.. eyes are sensitive...

rgds and rh fun...Z
 
Hello, Thanks for the reply.
Thinking about it a tub probably isn't the best option, ideally I would go for the lab glass container but lab grade glass can be quite expensive, I did think a large Kilner jar may work but my other issue is I only have 1 litre of ferric chloride so with the vinegar that gives me a 2 litre mix, so I don't want my container any more than 2 litres, I don't think that should be too much a problem though.
So in the name on cost effectiveness and simplicity i'll go with the plastic vinegar bottle, I'm aware some plastic is fine with acid but I didn't know what to look for to be honest. I'm assuming with your suggestion a vinegar bottle will be fine holding the vinegar, ferric chloride mix? It makes sense with vinegar already being a bit acidic. I'd probably buy 2 and a funnel so I can cut the top off one and safely poor it back into another with a lid to dispose of correctly. I'm going to keep an eye of for a suitable bottle when I go shopping today, thanks again for the info.
 
I used a length of 2½" PVC pipe with a PVC solvent welded cap on one end, and sandbags around the bottom to hold it steady. Cut a couple of U-shaped notches on the top end for the dowel the knife hangs from.
 
Hey, thanks for that info that's a interesting method, but I've just been out to the shop and got a few options. I've bought a 2 litre kilner type jar, but I would have to fill it to the brim to fully submerge the knife as it's only just deep enough, which I'm not too keen on doing with it being acid.
I've also bought 2 pepsi bottles one to cut the top off and one to pour it back into after checking PET plastic is OK for storing ferric chloride. So I think I'm going to go with the Pepsi bottles. Time to start sanding the knife down I suppose, thanks for all the info.
 
I just have one more separate question in regards to sanding the knife down, as this is the first time I've done this.
The knife I'm looking to etch is the Shun fuji 8.5 inch chefs knife https://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/shun-fuji-chefs-knife/ although the picture on this site doesn't show it very well, the lower half of the blade has a deep etch showing the Damascus pattern as more of an engraving. After seeing somebody else's final result of the same blade on a separate thread who said he followed this guide, I really wanted to give it a go.
I just wanted to ask when I'm sanding down the cladding to remove the deep etch and even the hammered part of the blade on the top half, do I need to worry about going too far e.g through the cladding? I only ask because the etching is quite deep and looks like it will take a good bit of sanding. I'm obviously going to be careful, I just wanted to know kind of how careful I need to be if that makes sense?
 
After sometime sanding my knife down I've come to realise I will sooner go through my fingers than the cladding, some hard work lies ahead getting the hammered part of the blade out but it'll be worth it.
 
A quick question regarding sanding down the cladding, so far I've been sanding one side of the blade for about 8+ hours by hand and I've still not entirely finished one side, some of the deep etch still remains, I'm determined but can't help but feel a bit over faced.
I wanted to ask, is sanding by hand the best technique? Or would I be better using a sanding block or a stick of some kind?
 
Also is the sandpaper better wet or dry for this? I've been sanding dry so far. I've managed to give myself a large blister on the end of my finger doing this and I've still not touched one side of the blade, so any advice that could make things a bit easier would be greatly appreciated.
 
I'd say wet - I always heard dry for reshaping, wet for polishing. That sounds like too much sanding: what grits of paper are you using? I've only done this a few times but I don't think it's ever taken more than 2 or maybe 3 hours total - pre-etch polish, etch, and post-etch polish. It also sounds like too deep of an etch; might make more sense to sand it with a coarser grit, not worry about the current pattern, and start from the beginning.
 
cardey1988 said:
Also is the sandpaper better wet or dry for this? I've been sanding dry so far. I've managed to give myself a large blister on the end of my finger doing this and I've still not touched one side of the blade, so any advice that could make things a bit easier would be greatly appreciated.
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Use one of these:

41Q517KPEHL._SX355_.jpg

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009IQZ2K/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
 
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Hey guys, thanks for getting back to me.
I'm currently using 240 wet/dry, to be honest I was afraid to go any courser in case I went through the Damascus cladding. The Shun Fuji i'm doing it on had a hammered finish to it, so there were ripples going down the knife, more so on the top portion of the blade. I'm trying to sand those ripples out of the metal so it's entirely flat before the re-etch, after seeing somebody do the same thing on this forum I really liked the end result.
Unfortunately the hammer marks go deeper on one side of the blade and I can't tell if they actually go though the cladding, on the other side I should have no trouble smoothing it out although there's still some work to do. So I face a bit of a dilemma do I try and match up both sides of the blade and risk going through the cladding trying to smooth out what appear to be holes? Or do I settle with how it is? It a tricky one I don't really know how thick cladding is hence me being very cautious sanding for hours on end lol. So it's a bit beyond polishing really. Do you think it's safe to go any courser than 240?
I would post you some pictures but I can't find a way to upload without joining another site... I will when I find a bit more time.

Thanks for the tip with the backing pad I'm going to order one now, my finger tips are immensely grateful.
 
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