Help Please with Damascus

izafireman

izafireman

Well-Known Member
I bought some Balbach Damast Damascus some time back and want to use it soon.

One knife will be a stick tang but the other will be a full tang. Am I right in saying that if I make the scales on the full tangs with G10 that I am able to dip the whole knife into the Hydrochloric acid solution once the knife is built and that the acid will not affect the G10 or the epoxy, pretty sure I have seen this somewhere?

Cheers
 
Most would not dip the whole thing. You can temporarily affix the scales to the knife shape them then remove them and dip the blade then attach the scales. Or you can dip the blade finish the knife with the scales and when you get the scales to final shape sand or grind the spine and tang to match.
 
Don't do it. If you do, you will never get the acid under the scales neutralized.....and in short order you will have rust "growing" from under the scales. I would also encourage you to steer clear of Hydrochloric..... and get yourself some Ferric Chloride..... much safer, and just all around a better choice for etching. Most Balbach material is NON stainless.... so you don't need hydrochloric to etch it. (stainless damascus generally requires hydrochloric)
 
Gliden07 said:
Most would not dip the whole thing. You can temporarily affix the scales to the knife shape them then remove them and dip the blade then attach the scales. Or you can dip the blade finish the knife with the scales and when you get the scales to final shape sand or grind the spine and tang to match.
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Yes what I am trying to achieve is have the spine etched along with the blade.
 
EdCaffreyMS said:
Don't do it. If you do, you will never get the acid under the scales neutralized.....and in short order you will have rust "growing" from under the scales. I would also encourage you to steer clear of Hydrochloric..... and get yourself some Ferric Chloride..... much safer, and just all around a better choice for etching. Most Balbach material is NON stainless.... so you don't need hydrochloric to etch it. (stainless damascus generally requires hydrochloric)
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I spoke to the maker I Germany about this some months ago and he said 15-20% Hydrochloric was the best option of sulphuric of the same. I bought hydrochloric which I will have in PVC building tubes fixed to the wall along with PPE when I do the dip.
 
One issue that many don't realize when it comes to Hydrochloric, muriatic, etc. is..... these are "fuming" acids, meaning when exposed to atmosphere they give off terrible fumes..... only special respirator filters will protect YOU, but the next day you walk into the shop.... and there is a coating or rust on EVERYTHING......just a pain to have around and deal with. If it's not absolutely necessary, use something safer and with less hassles.
 
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I am still pretty new when it comes to damascus but IMO it does not take a very strong acid to etch steel. On Ed's advice I diluted my F.C. with either 3 parts or 4 parts distilled water and I was shocked to see how fast it still etched the blade. Ed said slow etching is best for damascus and that helped mine a lot.
 
EdCaffreyMS said:
One issue that many don't realize when it comes to Hydrochloric, muriatic, etc. is..... these are "fuming" acids, meaning when exposed to atmosphere they give off terrible fumes..... only special respirator filters will protect YOU, but the next day you walk into the shop.... and there is a coating or rust on EVERYTHING......just a pain to have around and deal with. If it's not absolutely necessary, use something safer and with less hassles.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for letting me know this especially as I am asthmatic. What ever I use I have made a plastic soil pipe dipping tank, one end of pipe has a solvent weld blank and the other an airtight screw fit lid. I used ferric chloride for another job once and left the stuff in an opener container overnight in winter and had the rusting issue, never again , it was a nightmare cleaning my bandsaw etc.

I have opened the acid I have and it was cheap as chips but I think I will use ferric chloride instead, I only bought the Hydrolchric on the makers advice but if ferric will do exactly the same job but slower I will use that instead.

Cheers
 
Ed.....just reading the other post you replied to regarding Damascus today, the Damascus I have is also stainless, so I guess I have to use the hydrochloric acid??
 
I checked their website, and didn't see any materials that were listed as "stainless"....but then again I could have missed it. I was responding on the assumption that what you have is carbon steel damascus. If it is indeed stainless, then yes, you're gona be stuck using the icky stuff to etch with.
 
EdCaffreyMS said:
I checked their website, and didn't see any materials that were listed as "stainless"....but then again I could have missed it. I was responding on the assumption that what you have is carbon steel damascus. If it is indeed stainless, then yes, you're gona be stuck using the icky stuff to etch with.
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Hi Ed, thanks for your reply and yes it is stainless and I guess this is why they said to use either Sulphuric or Hydrochloric. From memory I think they said 15-20%. Fortunately I am able to use the dipping tanks I made outside, even so I will get myself a couple of different filters for my respirator that will filter out the fumes.
 
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