Etching a carbon steel knife blade?

J

joseph vitullo

Joined
Dec 9, 2014
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I have never etched before but I am anxious to get started. I have seen etches done with handheld push tools on softer metals like brass, silver, etc but I was wondering what about the knife blade it self. Wouldn't a carbon steel blade be too hard for a push tool? what would be used instead? I am curious if the same kind of wide, flared cuts that the hand push tools make could be achieved with a carbide bit or something of that sort?
 
Do you mean engrave? "Etch" is often used to refer to chemical etching of blades (usually with some sort of acid) to discolor the steel.
 
Etching is done with various acids or chemicals and electricy to eat away metal and then deposit an oxide to darken the exposed material. Engraving uses tools to cut away metal. There are a number of people who do knife engraving on finished knives and they use about half and half hand tools and air powered engravers. It takes practice and patience. The Warenskis and Steve Lindsay are very prominent examples of what can be done.
 
Filling out your profile would help us give you better advice. That might be the best place to start. Your age, occupation, location, and hobbies will help a lot.

Engraving is a fairly advanced skill and takes a lot of practice to master. Engraving steel is an even more advanced skill. A student will rarely start on steel, but must first learn the basics on softer metals.

There are schools with classes that teach courses in engraving. Some are only one or two week classes.
There are several great forums that deal only with engraving.
There are several good books and videos on engraving.

The equipment can range from simple burins and hammers to very high-tech power graver systems. The cost of learning engraving is fairly high in most cases. Spending several thousand dollars is about the beginner norm. Just the very basic needs will run over a thousand in most cases.
 
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