If you add your location to your profile or tell us where you are maybe someone can help you with a local supplier. Here in Evansville Indiana there is a local electronics company that used to sell it in powder form and you needed to add distilled water to it which you would do anyway for etching. I bought out the local Radio Shacks before they went out of business.

Fry's electronics usually has it, but it looks like you're in Kansas and I don't think Fry's exists there. But just about anywhere that sells motherboard parts (resistors, capacitors, etc) should have it or know where to get it.

If you don't find someone local, you can also try a lemon juice etch or an instant coffee etch.

Ferric Chloride is FeCl3 or basically Hydrochloric acid (HCL) without the hydrogen and some Iron (Fe) added. Muriatic acid (sold in big box home improvement stores or pool supply houses) is diluted HCL. So, if you cannot find any FeCl3 suppliers, you can always make a trip to the local Home Depot or Lowes and purchase a gallon or two of pool acid, a bag of fine steel wool, and a 5-gallon bucket.

Working with acids is inherently dangerous. This is corrosive stuff that will eat your flesh, burn your lungs, and can cause serious health issues.

Make sure you have rubber gloves, eye protection or a full face shield and a well ventilated space or serious respirator before trying this:

Pour the acid into the bucket and add the steel wool in small amounts, stirring it until the steel wool no longer dissolves. You will now have a fairly close approximation of FeCl3 that is already slightly diluted. You will want to dilute it even more. Most of use dilute FeCl3 with 3 or 4 parts distilled or filtered water.

Is it as "good" as factory made FeCl3? No.

Will it work to etch your Damascus? Yes, but your mileage may vary.

BTW- You can always use diluted Muriatic acid and skip the Ferric altogether. It doesn't provide the same color contrast as Ferric does, but you can always add that with coffee or bluing treatments.

|quoted:

Ferric Chloride is FeCl3 or basically Hydrochloric acid (HCL) without the hydrogen and some Iron (Fe) added. Muriatic acid (sold in big box home improvement stores or pool supply houses) is diluted HCL. So, if you cannot find any FeCl3 suppliers, you can always make a trip to the local Home Depot or Lowes and purchase a gallon or two of pool acid, a bag of fine steel wool, and a 5-gallon bucket.

Working with acids is inherently dangerous. This is corrosive stuff that will eat your flesh, burn your lungs, and can cause serious health issues.

Make sure you have rubber gloves, eye protection or a full face shield and a well ventilated space or serious respirator before trying this:

Pour the acid into the bucket and add the steel wool in small amounts, stirring it until the steel wool no longer dissolves. You will now have a fairly close approximation of FeCl3 that is already slightly diluted. You will want to dilute it even more. Most of use dilute FeCl3 with 3 or 4 parts distilled or filtered water.

Is it as "good" as factory made FeCl3? No.

Will it work to etch your Damascus? Yes, but your mileage may vary.

BTW- You can always use diluted Muriatic acid and skip the Ferric altogether. It doesn't provide the same color contrast as Ferric does, but you can always add that with coffee or bluing treatments.

This works quite well except you need to add hydrogen peroxide, after dissolving the steel wool (or any steel) the mixture will be green , this is not ferric chloride , it is ferrous chloride (FeCI2) adding hydrogen peroxide converts it to ferric (FecI3) it can be a strong reaction so go slow. you can stop adding peroxide when the solution has turned brown. I normally wait until this point to add distilled water to dilute. In My experience ferrous chloride is also a very strong etchant much faster than ferric at the same concentration, but it doesn't etch as cleanly and is more prone ghost effects from bubbles or such.

MP

Thank you Matthew. I knew I was forgetting something. (You little alchemist you!)