Anyone consider Acid Etching your HI Kuk ? I etched one of mine

[Aeromat209]

The blade took on a dull grey patina using Muratic Acid dipped for 30 Minutes! I did oil it after washing and the blade seems to have lost some lubricity with the dulled finish . I was hoping to attain better rust prevention with the etching and a non reflective look. I am guessing the finish could be reversed if polished ? Any thoughts or pics of others that have ventured this way? I do use my HI blades and not keeping for a collection .

 

[SingleGrind]

I acid etched my Baby Villager CAK with ferric chloride, just for s&g's, and it took on a yellow/orange tint under a matte gray. I blued it afterwards, again, just to see what would happen. Now it's pretty dark, with just a hint of the yellow near the cho, and wear marks from the kydex sheath I made. I'm not sure how to post pictures from my phone, but I've got some from each stage. I plan on doing an apple cider vinegar etch on my KK too

 

[Steely_Gunz]

As a contractor working in both concrete and pool chemicals, muriatic acid is my go-to etching agent. Disclaimer: make sure it's ventilated wherever you use it
That stuff will carve up your lungs.

 

[gurkha berserka]

As a contractor working in both concrete and pool chemicals, muriatic acid is my go-to etching agent. Disclaimer: make sure it's ventilated wherever you use it
That stuff will carve up your lungs.

Another note on muriatic acid... Be VERY cautions around any type of aluminum. Aluminum foil is a catalyst when mixed with muriatic acid. It turns into a bomb!!! I use to fill empty 20oz and 2 liter soda bottles 1/4 of the way up with muriatic acid. I would then take a piece of aluminum foil and insert it in the bottle. You have to be real fast and twist the cap on and throw it before it blow your face off. It sounds like a stick of TNT going off. I blew up many a mail box in my mischievous youth.

 

[Dobe_1]

The tales of a misspent youth. Actually, if I had known that recipe, I would have cooked that one up too.

 

[xylum]

I've used vinegar, just for a bit of rust protection. It just dulls and darkens the blade. Pretty sure you could polish it back to a mirror finish. It will also eat off the forge scale.

 

[mtngunr]

A rougher finish traps salts and acids and impossible to completely clean...shiny is good and always has been as for protection (ie not leaving moisture and corrosives on blade).....my job is aircraft and 90% of all aircraft work involves corrosion and extensive training on various metals and protection thereof...

It is always the anode/cathode/current pathway (electrolyte) which cause corrosion....take away any of the three and nothing corrodes....for steel it is salts and acids and moisture if not involved in contact with other metals prone to inducing current flow, which brass is not, nor nickel silver...

So keep it clean and dry and no rust...otherwise, short of completely sealing surface with a coating, rust will surely happen...oils do this temporarily, blueing and parkerizing help hold oil a bit better, and some manner of epoxy or plastic coat is tops in modern technology...

But roughening a surface just to roughen it will only cause more problems.....this is all quite outside aesthetics which is up to individual owners.....

 

[Karda]

My users all have a satin like scotch-brite finish. I clean and thoroughly dry after each usage. Then they hang on the wall with no oil until next usage.
I have no rusting to report. Not even a patina forms on them even though humidity has been quite high this year.
I've thought about inducing a patina on them, but found it unnecessary and prefer that it earns its patina thru age and use.

 

[mtngunr]

Easier to take quick photos of a smaller knife and get light correct....patina/etch/stain/corrosion all same thing and inevitable with a non-stainless user....and nobody with a vat can duplicate granny's old butcher knife with its layers of stain and not one the same...

But you will notice what is blue and dark and cool looking in one angle, turns out to be simply an attacked light colored etched and rough surface not reflecting the light the same and stained with contaminates and oxides down in micro pits....and a pitted surface will never cut as smoothly as a smooth surface....causes greatly increased drag in deep slices, and as soon as i can feel drag with fingertips or waxed/oiled cloth, i polish off oxides with same cloth and red rouge, the colors generally come right off except those down in grind lines and pits....

 

[Noah Zark]

I phosphated (Parkerized) the blade of a BAS about 10 years ago:









The process consisted of alkaline cleaning and rinses followed by 20 mins of "swishing" the blade in the phosphate tank, followed by rinses and multiple oilings with Corrosion-X.

I never used the BAS since, but I like the way it turned out. One detriment -- phosphate has a relatively high coefficient of friction, so it's harder to pull out of the scabbard. And phosphate crystals will "burnish" under high pressure, making shiny spots. But phos has an incredibly high surface area and void volume and it soaks up oil. And that's why it's used for corrosion protection; it holds water and electrolyte displacing oil.

Noah

 

[mtngunr]

Precisely, Dr Zark....it is porous and acts as an oil sponge.....polishes with sheathing and normal use, but even when visually worn away, still holds oil better than bare steel.....but drags far worse in cuts....as an fyi the parkerize takes and holds better to a bead blasted surface.

Lovely job....if you are old enough to remember the Flash Gordon comics, you might recall a 1950s parody by MAD called Flesh Garden and his sidekick was a Dr. Noah Zark.

 

[Kismet]

The blade took on a dull grey patina using Muratic Acid dipped for 30 Minutes! I did oil it after washing and the blade seems to have lost some lubricity with the dulled finish . I was hoping to attain better rust prevention with the etching and a non reflective look. I am guessing the finish could be reversed if polished ? Any thoughts or pics of others that have ventured this way? I do use my HI blades and not keeping for a collection .

You might enjoy going to the Archives and doing a search on "Ferrous," a long-time, much-valued one of the regulars back in the day. He did a lot of work and experimentation on various etching techniques.

Enjoy.