And if it works perfectly on a very nice stainless steel  I suppose it works perfectly for every kinda of work.
My inspiration was yesterday when I disgorged my bath tub and using the liquid acid it stained all aruond my stainless ware…

So that’s my way: it is simple, very effective and gives quite nice results with a minimum effort. If I do this results I think that every one can give the same results easily.

Please use every precautions since I’m using diluted acid, at least wear safety goggles.

Here it is my very complex electric equipment!
A 9v battery, two crocs clips and some wire taken from old loudspeakers. All of this was securely taped so i don’t need to soldier at all. If you can use a soldering gun it’s better.

Since I was a pro designer I have easy access on plotters and cutted adhesives. So first I designed with a vector software my logo that I use also for leather ware and I had to send it in factory. They did a very good job also me and this is my adhesive that I stick on the blade.

For this time I choosed a positive etch.

That’s my fluid chosen for etching. A very cheap liquid disgorger. I read it the chemical composition: it is sulphuric acid in 90%. It is right this enough to stain every steel I suppose…
It is okay also to use salted water or battery acid that you can buy just about everywhere. Cheap!

This time I will use it in few drops diluted in some few ml of water:  it is less dangerous and it is still effective since it is passed by DC current from my 9v battery. Those are my remembers of chemicals when I was a painting restorer.

So I sticked some masking tape previously touched several times with my fingers to loose some stickyness. It is better so not to stick too much the adhesive tape

I carefully apply on the blade the adhesive being careful to attach also the small parts of vinyl sticker…

I carefully mask all around. I’m sorry that I don’t have some american tape i think it will be better.
I clipped one croc on the tang of the blade and the other croc holds the cotton(or paper) bud.
So, I dipped inside the solution the cotton bud and i tipped. The steel is going darker and i hear some bubbling. Also I can smell hydrogen…yeah mates it works… nice!

This is the final result after 2 minutes of tipping: the acid stained a bit and ate the stainless steel: it is something 0,2 mm deep but i think it is enough since i will not touch anymore the blade since further working for the handles…

This is a macro photo just after this treatment and with a short polishing with plain paper

Here I’m polishing with very fine paste used by car body repair

This is the final result after the final polishing. It shines. And I clearly see the acid that ate the metal with fine bubbles engraving. The look is almost professional and the result is very pleasing I suppose.

Some other tips:
you can use acid from old batteries or salt water. This time I used a cheap 9v battery. But you can use old battery charger from mobile phones, a wireless drill battery, any old battery charger with more than 9v and with some milliamperes.

Obviously with this method you can etch any other steel (carbon or stainless doesn’t matter) or metal.

Some other tips:
you can use acid from old batteries or salt water. This time I used a cheap 9v battery. But you can use old battery charger from mobile phones, a wireless drill battery, any old battery charger with more than (v and with some milliamperes.

Cheers!