I've had much better luck with professional stencils. TusTech is my current go-to, but IMG and Ernie Grospitch are both well spoken of. There's a guy named Frank Aguirre who lives down your direction who has been making some good stencils lately for a lot of the Texas Knifemaker's Guild guys.

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I've had much better luck with professional stencils. TusTech is my current go-to, but IMG and Ernie Grospitch are both well spoken of. There's a guy named Frank Aguirre who lives down your direction who has been making some good stencils lately for a lot of the Texas Knifemaker's Guild guys.

Thank you, I will check them out

stencils, what are stencils? lol just joking around a bit. i do know a bit about making a stencil from my hobby of Gunpla building. using a sheet of minimum of about .040 thickness Polystyrene makes the best physical stencil. How to make one:

Step 1: make your design for the stencil on a piece of paper,

Optional step 2: print out the design

Step 3: cut out the design using a hobby knife.

Step 4: tape the design to your piece of polystyrene using a clear tape. you can ether use the outer core of the paper as a small stencil and use that as a guide or you can use the piece you cut out. this will depend on what you prefer so i recamend trying both.

Step 5: use a plastic cutter to rough cut out the design (depending on the thickness of the plastic you may want to invest in a plastic cutter, there not all that expensive, but as we are blade smiths we could just make one.) Depending on the type of stencil your making will in turn decide which side of the line your rough cutting the stencil form to. (a stencil in my mind could be a fill in type were you have a large piece and cut the shape out. you can have the cut out piece as the stencil which depending on how you want the etch to look may be more advantages as this way you can make several cut outs as you can quickly cover the blade with your resist. a third form of stencil would have small gaps between sections to make it look like you have lines making the etch image look like its a drawing. this could also be accomplished by using multiple cut outs)

Step 6: Using a eather a strip of 400 grit sandpaper or a few shapes of needle files to clean up the rough cut out to the finished form.

Final steps: this will change depending on what type of etching method your preforming.

Classic and simple ECE etching:

Step 1: tape or clamp the stencil to your blade and paint on your resist.repeat this on the other side.

Photo etching: Note: this is based on a some educated of guess work as i have no real interest in photo etching but have a general idea on how its done):

Step 7: if your doing photo etching you will want to use a classic stencil with a small hole taped at each corner.

process to making the photo etch:

Step 1: place the film onto a piece of card board.

Step 2: place the stencil you made over the film and pin it in place.

here is were im not quite sure how this form of etching works: cut out the shape making the film into a third stencil.

step 3: Affix to blade and go via however your to secure a stencil of this type for photo etching. As this is something i have not considered i am not sure the right process to affixing it to your blade. however you will want the film to be secured so it will not fall off so im thinking you spray glue onto one side of the film and affix to the blade this way.

For this you can also make a long stencil and make a latter pattern like etch film.

the ironic thing about my knowledge on how to make a stencil, I never use one as i prefer to free hand all my etch designs. (or lettering on my gunpla)

i hope this helps i hope whoever is reading this will let me know if you understand the steps, because i do not know if i am explaining the process clearly.

|quoted:

stencils, what are stencils? lol just joking around a bit. i do know a bit about making a stencil from my hobby of Gunpla building. using a sheet of minimum of about .040 thickness Polystyrene makes the best physical stencil. How to make one:

Step 1: make your design for the stencil on a piece of paper,

Optional step 2: print out the design

Step 3: cut out the design using a hobby knife.

Step 4: tape the design to your piece of polystyrene using a clear tape. you can ether use the outer core of the paper as a small stencil and use that as a guide or you can use the piece you cut out. this will depend on what you prefer so i recamend trying both.

Step 5: use a plastic cutter to rough cut out the design (depending on the thickness of the plastic you may want to invest in a plastic cutter, there not all that expensive, but as we are blade smiths we could just make one.) Depending on the type of stencil your making will in turn decide which side of the line your rough cutting the stencil form to. (a stencil in my mind could be a fill in type were you have a large piece and cut the shape out. you can have the cut out piece as the stencil which depending on how you want the etch to look may be more advantages as this way you can make several cut outs as you can quickly cover the blade with your resist. a third form of stencil would have small gaps between sections to make it look like you have lines making the etch image look like its a drawing. this could also be accomplished by using multiple cut outs)

Step 6: Using a eather a strip of 400 grit sandpaper or a few shapes of needle files to clean up the rough cut out to the finished form.

Final steps: this will change depending on what type of etching method your preforming.

Classic and simple ECE etching:

Step 1: tape or clamp the stencil to your blade and paint on your resist.repeat this on the other side.

Photo etching: Note: this is based on a some educated of guess work as i have no real interest in photo etching but have a general idea on how its done):

Step 7: if your doing photo etching you will want to use a classic stencil with a small hole taped at each corner.

process to making the photo etch:

Step 1: place the film onto a piece of card board.

Step 2: place the stencil you made over the film and pin it in place.

here is were im not quite sure how this form of etching works: cut out the shape making the film into a third stencil.

step 3: Affix to blade and go via however your to secure a stencil of this type for photo etching. As this is something i have not considered i am not sure the right process to affixing it to your blade. however you will want the film to be secured so it will not fall off so im thinking you spray glue onto one side of the film and affix to the blade this way.

For this you can also make a long stencil and make a latter pattern like etch film.

the ironic thing about my knowledge on how to make a stencil, I never use one as i prefer to free hand all my etch designs. (or lettering on my gunpla)

i hope this helps i hope whoever is reading this will let me know if you understand the steps, because i do not know if i am explaining the process clearly.

Thank you

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Thank you

your welcome =)