Chayenne,

I've always stamped my mark, but I'm interested in etching. The problem with stamping is that you either need to do it before hardening or on an area that you've left soft--very soft-after hardening. I don't like the idea of leaving anything dead soft on a finished knife, so that means I stamp before I harden. The problem with that is that when you polish out the blade, you have to polish over the stamped area, which can soften the mark even eliminate it in part or in full.

Another problem with stamping is accuracy. My mark is made up of several very fine, delicate lines, going in all sorts of directions. If I don't hold the stamp perfectly perpendicular, I don't get a clean mark. It is nearly impossible to line up a second time to finish the mark. There are of course ways to get around this: 1) get better at it, 2) hold your stamp with an arbor press.

But I've heard good things about etching. I don't know too much about it, but I've heard that you can go pretty deep with your mark, and I wonder whether that depth would be comparable to what I'm achieving with my stamp anyway. My problem is that I haven't found anyone who offers a machine, the chemicals, and the stencils in one place.

Good luck,

Zack

Oh, and the company that makes my stamps is Infinity Stamps Inc.

Here's the link:

http://www.infinitystamps.com/

I stamp some and etch some. I have the same font for both. As far as etching deep, I like to burn it in deep. I'm having no problem with that. I still have some of the same issues as Zack mentioned stamping, but you do get better at it if you pay attention to the details and keep things even. Etching is less stressful to me, plus I can etch after the blade is hardened and in a variety of locations on the blade that would be near impossible to stamp. I get stencils from Earnie Grospitch.

Thanks for the information guys. The knives that I know the fellow is polishing the etch off of do not etch their knives very deep; so I had thought etch was too easily removed. Do you need different etchants for different steels or does one work on all?

A general etchant solution will etch a variety of steels and some aluminum, stainless, etc. Just tell the supplier what steels you're working with.

I've seen logos etched so shallow that I can see where it would wear off or could be buffed off. I burn it as deep as a stamped logo. It wont wear off.

Not for nothin', but I use a homemade electric etcher using a 12v wall charger originally purposed for charging Ni-Cad batteries. Cut leads and attach gator clips, positive to work piece, negative to etching lead. Use a little salt-water soaked rag on a steel bar attached to the negative lead. Using a vinyl stencil I can get very deep marks. Much deeper than the personalizer leaves in the same amount of time. It takes maybe a couple of minutes total work to get truly as deep as a stamp in hardened steel...

Just for kicks, it might not do it as well as some professional apparatuses but I can also plate with it by switching the leads. All you have to do is replace the steel bar with some parent material, silver, copper, etc, and then allow the process to transfer the material, remembering of course to have positive lead in hand, and negative to work piece.

It is a bit messy, and if the work piece is not thoroughly protected stray contact points near the stencil can be etched accidentally, but with a little practice it works very well.

Eric

The secret to a deep etch is twofold:

1. A really good quality stencil. I get mine from marking Methods: http://www.markingmethods.com/

2. An etcher that allows you to use DC or AC voltage. The DC etch is very fast and very deep and comes out clean and bright. The AC used after the DC will turn the metal black on the surface. I purchased a pretty inexpensive etcher from Etch-O-Matic http://www.etchomatic.com/

The kit comes with everything you need to make your own stencils (provided you have a computer, printer and transparencies)but they can bleed a little around the edges.

Thanks again guys. Now that I have my school up and running, hopefully I can put more time back to bladesmithing and try out etching.