I think that looks great. My etches got a lot better after watching some Kyle Royer videos. I etch, sand with 2000 grit, etch again, repeat. Then I etch in heavily concentrated coffee over night. Then I go over it with sunshine cloth. The sunshine cloth does a really good job of polishing the bright parts and making them shiny. Then, I heat it up with a heat gun, rub some carnauba wax on it, let it cool, heat it up again, wipe the wax off with a paper towel or something, let it cool again, then go over it with sunshine cloth. Again, the sunshine cloth does an amazing job of making it nice and shiny. The thin layer of carnauba wax does a great job of preserving the finish and making it pop. I used to use oil. Wax makes it look just as good as oil but without it being wet, and it's more durable.
First outstanding collaboration between two of my favorite artists! Good looking knife… I don’t typically go for the mirror finish, however I have found that going for the mirror or near mirror finish gives me the best results with Damascus.
Beautiful work. I've always wondered about making a full tang damascus knife with a clear (Plexiglass?) handle materiel to display the beauty of the entire blade.
Try using 100% orange juice instead of the coffee etch...Ive been using this method and in two hours i get a pretty solid dark etch. let time the coffee and much easier....i do plan on trying to do some longer soaks. 4 hours may be a good time frame. but so far its been wildly good for me. Doesnt touch the 15n20 and makes the 1084/1095 pretty dark
Deep etching + buffing is kinda cool but for stainless damascus steel, with carbon damascus one way is to put 3000 grit finish, etch with gator piss or ferric+coffee just 5 min, hand sand 5000 grit, do it again, stop when u have what u want.
Since you asked in the video, if I may share how I usually do it: 4 parts water with 1 part liquid FeCl. I like to burn my logo in first. I hand sand to 400, do a 5 minute bath, polish at 1500 until the 15n20 is brilliant, then clean the rest of the oxide out with flitz. From there I do 5-10 minute baths, and remove oxides with flitz in between. If I'm doing lower layer damascus and want so real pop, I'll do a 20-30 minute bath in there somewhere to really dig in. There's 1000 ways to polish your damascus, but this method has been working pretty well for me. The key is understanding what the etching and polishing is doing each cycle. If you etch too hard too fast, it can get really fuzzy. If you missed any 220 or worse scratches, the etching will make them worse. How clean you get the oxides off will help determine how sharp the etching is if you do a lot of bath cycles. If you want the cleanest pop on high layer damascus, use a hard backing and 2500ish sandpaper instead of the flitz, and use fine steel wool to remove oxides between baths that the 2500 doesn't get, and hand sand to at least 800 before starting. If you do it this way, you can go too far, and make the whole knife feel "rough" because your polishing was too precise and you made a bunch of sharp shelves on the face of the knife. You don't want that. So find the balance that works best for you. All this will eventually leave a pretty polished damasucs pattern with great chatoyancy. If you want the 1084 black, you'll want to give it all a rub with fine steel wool to create micro-abrasions, and then bathe it in concentrated instant coffee. If it goes yellow, you went too far, no big deal just steel wool and repeat (preheat to about 100 degrees, use like half the jar of instant coffee). Coffee black is probably the most durable "black" finish, but no matter what it'll end up rubbing off with normal wear in and out of the sheath and stuff like that. So there's nothing wrong with a nice polished finish too.
I think that looks great. My etches got a lot better after watching some Kyle Royer videos. I etch, sand with 2000 grit, etch again, repeat. Then I etch in heavily concentrated coffee over night. Then I go over it with sunshine cloth. The sunshine cloth does a really good job of polishing the bright parts and making them shiny. Then, I heat it up with a heat gun, rub some carnauba wax on it, let it cool, heat it up again, wipe the wax off with a paper towel or something, let it cool again, then go over it with sunshine cloth. Again, the sunshine cloth does an amazing job of making it nice and shiny. The thin layer of carnauba wax does a great job of preserving the finish and making it pop. I used to use oil. Wax makes it look just as good as oil but without it being wet, and it's more durable.
I haven't seen the end yet but glad you ground so deep into it. Twists get more interesting the deeper you grind into them.
Wow James did a great job on that billet and you did amazing job on that blade. Well done guys!
It's a masterpiece 👏👏
Sweet! Red beard is an excellent maker!
First outstanding collaboration between two of my favorite artists! Good looking knife…
I don’t typically go for the mirror finish, however I have found that going for the mirror or near mirror finish gives me the best results with Damascus.
Great looking knife! Nice collab between a couple of my favorite channels. :)
Great seeing a collab between two makers whose work I love.
Awesome collab gents, community needs more like you guys!
Thanks Jesse!
very nice steel pattern. fine knife too. kinda like a small chef knife.++
I learned a lot from both channels on this build
Watching you doing your amazing knife while finishing mine after a 3 year stop is great...one day I hope to be able to make knives like yours
Absolutely beautiful!
Very nice!
Beautiful work. I've always wondered about making a full tang damascus knife with a clear (Plexiglass?) handle materiel to display the beauty of the entire blade.
Tell us more about that grinding jig!
He made a video about it a while ago
Nice! Finally tried your hand at making a knife out of damascus lol. It turned out super nice too, good work.
Sweet
yeah instant coffee is your best bet for a really nice contrast etch
🥰🥰👍
Try using 100% orange juice instead of the coffee etch...Ive been using this method and in two hours i get a pretty solid dark etch. let time the coffee and much easier....i do plan on trying to do some longer soaks. 4 hours may be a good time frame. but so far its been wildly good for me. Doesnt touch the 15n20 and makes the 1084/1095 pretty dark
Whatever happened with the Alec Steele collab a few years back? I dont remember seeing you finish the folder out the Damascus he sent you
Deep etching + buffing is kinda cool but for stainless damascus steel, with carbon damascus one way is to put 3000 grit finish, etch with gator piss or ferric+coffee just 5 min, hand sand 5000 grit, do it again, stop when u have what u want.
Since you asked in the video, if I may share how I usually do it: 4 parts water with 1 part liquid FeCl. I like to burn my logo in first. I hand sand to 400, do a 5 minute bath, polish at 1500 until the 15n20 is brilliant, then clean the rest of the oxide out with flitz. From there I do 5-10 minute baths, and remove oxides with flitz in between. If I'm doing lower layer damascus and want so real pop, I'll do a 20-30 minute bath in there somewhere to really dig in. There's 1000 ways to polish your damascus, but this method has been working pretty well for me. The key is understanding what the etching and polishing is doing each cycle. If you etch too hard too fast, it can get really fuzzy. If you missed any 220 or worse scratches, the etching will make them worse. How clean you get the oxides off will help determine how sharp the etching is if you do a lot of bath cycles. If you want the cleanest pop on high layer damascus, use a hard backing and 2500ish sandpaper instead of the flitz, and use fine steel wool to remove oxides between baths that the 2500 doesn't get, and hand sand to at least 800 before starting. If you do it this way, you can go too far, and make the whole knife feel "rough" because your polishing was too precise and you made a bunch of sharp shelves on the face of the knife. You don't want that. So find the balance that works best for you. All this will eventually leave a pretty polished damasucs pattern with great chatoyancy. If you want the 1084 black, you'll want to give it all a rub with fine steel wool to create micro-abrasions, and then bathe it in concentrated instant coffee. If it goes yellow, you went too far, no big deal just steel wool and repeat (preheat to about 100 degrees, use like half the jar of instant coffee). Coffee black is probably the most durable "black" finish, but no matter what it'll end up rubbing off with normal wear in and out of the sheath and stuff like that. So there's nothing wrong with a nice polished finish too.
Best way to get epoxy into the tiny opening on that handle please??
we're can i buy that bevel jig ?
i found it. $$$
What?! I can just sell Damascus billets !?!
Yup 👍
@@Simplelittlelife welll that changes things
@@Simplelittlelife wanna buy some steel 😂 lol