About a half hour ago, I tried one of Ron Claiborne's etching machines on my first knife. In short, for 110 bucks it's a very impressive machine.
It came with a clear set of instructions, but I was still apprehensive that I would make a mistake. Well, I can tell you Ron's machine WORKS. Following the instructions, I plugged it in and set it up (very easy). The stencil I used was a crude "W" cut into a piece of electrical tape. I put the etchant on the pad of the electrode and began. I pressed it over the stencil for five second durations punctuated by five second intervals about six times. Then I switched the machine over to "BLACK" and did the same and lo and behold when I unwrapped the electrical tape, there was a deep black W etched into the blade. I thought the corners and edges would be fuzzy, but they were sharp as if I had cut them into the blade. I then took a scratch awl and tried to scratch the black off the blade, but it hardly did anything and the black stayed in the etched portion.
Technical details: the blade was D-2, already heat treated. The etchant was what Ron supplied with the machine.
The upshot: for 110 bucks, you can get a machine that will do what the more expensive ones advertised in the knife mags will do. And Ron's attention to detail on this piece of electronics is every bit as nice as on his blades. I used to be an electronics technician and the company I worked for shipped products of questionable quality compared to this.
I am always pleased to get something from "the little guy" that makes high production machinery look like the overpriced mediocre stuff that it usually is.
For more info, contact Ron at bowie@icx.net.
Now, I better get to work on some passable knives so I can continue to have a reason to etch a maker mark!
Wade
It came with a clear set of instructions, but I was still apprehensive that I would make a mistake. Well, I can tell you Ron's machine WORKS. Following the instructions, I plugged it in and set it up (very easy). The stencil I used was a crude "W" cut into a piece of electrical tape. I put the etchant on the pad of the electrode and began. I pressed it over the stencil for five second durations punctuated by five second intervals about six times. Then I switched the machine over to "BLACK" and did the same and lo and behold when I unwrapped the electrical tape, there was a deep black W etched into the blade. I thought the corners and edges would be fuzzy, but they were sharp as if I had cut them into the blade. I then took a scratch awl and tried to scratch the black off the blade, but it hardly did anything and the black stayed in the etched portion.
Technical details: the blade was D-2, already heat treated. The etchant was what Ron supplied with the machine.
The upshot: for 110 bucks, you can get a machine that will do what the more expensive ones advertised in the knife mags will do. And Ron's attention to detail on this piece of electronics is every bit as nice as on his blades. I used to be an electronics technician and the company I worked for shipped products of questionable quality compared to this.
I am always pleased to get something from "the little guy" that makes high production machinery look like the overpriced mediocre stuff that it usually is.
For more info, contact Ron at bowie@icx.net.
Now, I better get to work on some passable knives so I can continue to have a reason to etch a maker mark!
Wade
