Dude!!! You have serious skill I’ve been watching a lot of your shorts of completed blades… I am very impressed! And always look forward to any content that you put out! Keep them coming!
great vid, Ta, i am a printmaker and used etchants a lot. Old school etching copper plates used in rembrants time was to gently pour the etchant over the surface so the bubble block doesnt happen, it also critically creats a eddy as the poured mordant/ etchant hits the lip of the edge lifting any sediment exposing the exposed surface to fresh etchant. It creates a quick deep line. This was done mainly on copper through a bitumian/wax resist. For printmaking this ment a sharp detailed ink line when printed. a mate revitalised this techniques. The relivance might be a pour etch first to establish metal boundrys then a soaking etch to drop the height. If not helpful info perhaps it feeds curiousity. I have just made my first damascus billet with twisting after shrinking my forge so the heat was enough, your videos helped het a hot enough gas forge. cheers
Itd be cool to make an etch tank with a reservoir, where the main tank slowly leaks into the reservoir, and a pump or siphon moves it from the reservoir back to the main tank, creating a constantly flow!
I had another question. I watched your cumia video and you mentioned applying a resist to the copper before putting it in f c. So my question is Baker forge who makes wild cumia uses their G P doesn’t degrade the copper. Plus it would be impossible to apply a resist to that busy of copper patterns. So their G P must be made with something other than F C. Any thoughts? Thanks again
Gator Piss's ingredients absolutely do include Muriatic Acid and Ferric Chloride and absolutely does affect copper layers. You can actually look up the ingredients online. My comment in the Cu-Mai video about masking the copper layers was about preventing the release of free copper ions which will pollute your etchant over time. You don't have to do this, though, instead you can just keep two etch tanks - one for pure steel blades and one for blades with copper elements. One will deteriorate faster than the other, but you won't have to worry about the copper pollutants affecting your blades. Baker Forge themselves actually put out advice that their GP etchant is a consumable and needs to be replaced regularly.
Thanks for that information. I do have two etch containers. Also I would like to share my experience with cumia. I use my heat treating oven and I set it at 1900 Fahrenheit. It’s slower but accurate. Also I found that welding around the entire billet holds it together better. I have made at least a dozen billets and when I do as said no problems with delaminating. Thank you so very much.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I have tried two gallons of G P and poor results. I always end up with a matted grey color. Very frustrated with it. Do dark 1084 steel. I followed their instructions. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.
I wash it with dawn very well. I hand sand to 1200 grit and then buff with white rouge. Also I do three twenty minute cycles. I thought maybe the first gallon was bad but I have had the same problem with the second gallon. Wish it would work.
What sort of ambient temperature and humidity is it where you are? GP works best when quite warm! Around 50C or 122F - ambient temperature seems to affect it quite strongly, which is why I recommend the magnetic stirrers with the heated bases!
As usual sir, you are a wealth of knowledge. I haven’t gotten into much etching yet, just a few that I stone washed (ferric). After your other “sucks” videos, I decided to build a new forced air forge. Completed now and getting used to it so hopefully some pattern welded billets in my future 🤞. Thanks for breaking it down and explaining the whole process. Hope the new year is a great one for you!
About cleaning before etching... what about 96* ethylic alcohol? I have easy and cheap access to lots of it, and I always used it to clean everything and didnt get any major issues with it but maybe it prevent from getting better results?
You can! Although it can leave residues, and you want to make sure that you thoroughly let it evaporate before etching. Also, during etching, make sure to use a fresh wipe on each pass to prevent the alcohol from simply moving any oils or contaminants around!
Hi Valhalla, i posted a question here but it is gone, i will do it again. I put a link in it to another youtube video, maybe that is not alowed? I have no idea 🙂 Anyway it is about a mirror polish of a damascus knife. I do not think it is possible and think it must be lacquer or something. Please let me know what you think.
I'm not sure what happened to your original comment, I'm sorry! I looked at the video and this is very possible! It takes great care to do it, but essentially what they've done is affected the surface scattering of their manganese steel without actually etching any depth. It would take great care to achieve, but is actually very possible!
@@ValhallaIronworks Wow cool, my comment stuck! 🙂 Thanks for your fast reply!!! But even without depth, wont the darker colour reflect the light differently? Like a marker on a foto, it will change the lightbreaking on the surface. What he has there is a perfect morror. Is there a way you can maybe one day try and show it here? 🙂I will try here myself but to be honest....... i dont think it is possible. I asked him too but he just sent a little heart. And what i think is strange, every step is shown in the video except..... the etching part! More mystery! hahaha Thanks again for your answer.
Ok..... i was just thinking maybe the colouring does not come from the outside like with acid then it has to come from the inside. So maybe with heating it to a certain temperature! I go check tomorrow. It is 1:30 AM on this side of the planet, i m out. Have a good one. :-)
The "dark colour" isn't actually a colour difference. It's just the way the light is reflecting! Like I say in the video, you can make light scatter a great deal, or you can make it scatter just a little, all by varying your etch. So in this way, he could very carefully etch it to make it seem like two different colours, when actually it's all the same colour, just bouncing light differently between the two steels. If you want a cool example of this phenomenon, look up "the chess board illusion" and it should explain how it works! It's quite cool physics, really!
Thanks for this comprehensive analysis. I couldn't tell at times whether I was hearing your rooster or my rooster!
Haha yeah Freddy reallllly wanted to be in the video
Awesome! I’ve always had spotty luck with etching
Dude!!! You have serious skill I’ve been watching a lot of your shorts of completed blades… I am very impressed! And always look forward to any content that you put out! Keep them coming!
Thank you very much!
great vid, Ta, i am a printmaker and used etchants a lot. Old school etching copper plates used in rembrants time was to gently pour the etchant over the surface so the bubble block doesnt happen, it also critically creats a eddy as the poured mordant/ etchant hits the lip of the edge lifting any sediment exposing the exposed surface to fresh etchant. It creates a quick deep line. This was done mainly on copper through a bitumian/wax resist. For printmaking this ment a sharp detailed ink line when printed. a mate revitalised this techniques. The relivance might be a pour etch first to establish metal boundrys then a soaking etch to drop the height. If not helpful info perhaps it feeds curiousity. I have just made my first damascus billet with twisting after shrinking my forge so the heat was enough, your videos helped het a hot enough gas forge. cheers
Itd be cool to make an etch tank with a reservoir, where the main tank slowly leaks into the reservoir, and a pump or siphon moves it from the reservoir back to the main tank, creating a constantly flow!
@ValhallaIronworks they used to use a old person or child to dip and pour.... dont recomend. Yes an interesting project
I'm now educated!. I wonder how you learnt all this. Appreciate the effort.
Making all of the mistakes hahaha
Very good video, I think I have learned something.
Cheers
Glad to hear it!
Remember kids if you're messing with the stronger stuff- acid to the water
Have a good Christmas
haha 100% - frankly I cringe a little with how common HCl is in people's workshops, and I could do an entire video just on acid safety.
I had another question. I watched your cumia video and you mentioned applying a resist to the copper before putting it in f c. So my question is Baker forge who makes wild cumia uses their G P doesn’t degrade the copper. Plus it would be impossible to apply a resist to that busy of copper patterns. So their G P must be made with something other than F C. Any thoughts? Thanks again
Gator Piss's ingredients absolutely do include Muriatic Acid and Ferric Chloride and absolutely does affect copper layers. You can actually look up the ingredients online. My comment in the Cu-Mai video about masking the copper layers was about preventing the release of free copper ions which will pollute your etchant over time. You don't have to do this, though, instead you can just keep two etch tanks - one for pure steel blades and one for blades with copper elements. One will deteriorate faster than the other, but you won't have to worry about the copper pollutants affecting your blades.
Baker Forge themselves actually put out advice that their GP etchant is a consumable and needs to be replaced regularly.
Thanks for that information. I do have two etch containers. Also I would like to share my experience with cumia. I use my heat treating oven and I set it at 1900 Fahrenheit. It’s slower but accurate. Also I found that welding around the entire billet holds it together better. I have made at least a dozen billets and when I do as said no problems with delaminating. Thank you so very much.
I have done a couple of videos now on making Cu-Mai, and have found that the perimeter weld like you said you do is absolutely essential!
Thanks for sharing your experience. I have tried two gallons of G P and poor results. I always end up with a matted grey color. Very frustrated with it. Do dark 1084 steel. I followed their instructions. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.
What's your cleaning procedure?
I wash it with dawn very well. I hand sand to 1200 grit and then buff with white rouge. Also I do three twenty minute cycles. I thought maybe the first gallon was bad but I have had the same problem with the second gallon. Wish it would work.
What sort of ambient temperature and humidity is it where you are? GP works best when quite warm! Around 50C or 122F - ambient temperature seems to affect it quite strongly, which is why I recommend the magnetic stirrers with the heated bases!
I have been etching around 70 degrees f. I will try 120 and keep it moving. Thanks again for your advice. Your knowledge is greatly appreciated.
As usual sir, you are a wealth of knowledge. I haven’t gotten into much etching yet, just a few that I stone washed (ferric). After your other “sucks” videos, I decided to build a new forced air forge. Completed now and getting used to it so hopefully some pattern welded billets in my future 🤞. Thanks for breaking it down and explaining the whole process. Hope the new year is a great one for you!
About cleaning before etching... what about 96* ethylic alcohol? I have easy and cheap access to lots of it, and I always used it to clean everything and didnt get any major issues with it but maybe it prevent from getting better results?
You can! Although it can leave residues, and you want to make sure that you thoroughly let it evaporate before etching. Also, during etching, make sure to use a fresh wipe on each pass to prevent the alcohol from simply moving any oils or contaminants around!
Hi Valhalla, i posted a question here but it is gone, i will do it again. I put a link in it to another youtube video, maybe that is not alowed? I have no idea 🙂 Anyway it is about a mirror polish of a damascus knife. I do not think it is possible and think it must be lacquer or something. Please let me know what you think.
This is the link, the polish is out of this world : ruclips.net/video/z3JjEPbP1SI/видео.html
I'm not sure what happened to your original comment, I'm sorry! I looked at the video and this is very possible! It takes great care to do it, but essentially what they've done is affected the surface scattering of their manganese steel without actually etching any depth. It would take great care to achieve, but is actually very possible!
@@ValhallaIronworks Wow cool, my comment stuck! 🙂 Thanks for your fast reply!!! But even without depth, wont the darker colour reflect the light differently? Like a marker on a foto, it will change the lightbreaking on the surface. What he has there is a perfect morror. Is there a way you can maybe one day try and show it here? 🙂I will try here myself but to be honest....... i dont think it is possible. I asked him too but he just sent a little heart. And what i think is strange, every step is shown in the video except..... the etching part! More mystery! hahaha Thanks again for your answer.
Ok..... i was just thinking maybe the colouring does not come from the outside like with acid then it has to come from the inside. So maybe with heating it to a certain temperature! I go check tomorrow. It is 1:30 AM on this side of the planet, i m out. Have a good one. :-)
The "dark colour" isn't actually a colour difference. It's just the way the light is reflecting! Like I say in the video, you can make light scatter a great deal, or you can make it scatter just a little, all by varying your etch. So in this way, he could very carefully etch it to make it seem like two different colours, when actually it's all the same colour, just bouncing light differently between the two steels. If you want a cool example of this phenomenon, look up "the chess board illusion" and it should explain how it works! It's quite cool physics, really!