Handmade Knife and Acid Etching

Hi!

This week my dad will celebrate his 46th birthday, so I decided to make him a gift that's useful. Some time ago he used to go hunting regularly so he has one really good Italian handmade knife, but i hope that he will like this one too.

Also this guy: Garra23 asked if i could make an instructable about acid etching so i made it :)

Tools and materials:

• Angle grinder
• Sandpaper
• Files
• Glue
• Fe Cl2
• Used plastic bottle

For the handle I used deer antler and cow horn but that's optional

Step 1: Blade

First I took a piece of steel and cut out the blade and grinded it. I choose this form of the blade because it's the usual form that's used for hunting knives.

Step 2: Preparing for Etching

First thing to do is to put duct tape on both sides of the blade.

Then I drew the lines that I wanted to be etched on the blade and cut them out and also i put some nail polish on the places where duct tape didn't cover the blade.

After that took a plastic bottle and cut it in half, poured water and FeCl2 mixture in there and put the blade in there.

Step 3: Etched Blade

I left it in FeCl2 for couple hours, however I regularly checked, because I didn't want to overdo it.

Unfortunately it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to be, because I didn't sand it enough.

BEFORE PUTTING IT INTO FeCl2 SAND IT NEATLY!!

Step 4: The Knife

At first I thought i ruined the blade but when I made the handle and polished it, it turned out quite well, it has that old, vintage look to it. It sits in hand really good, and it's razor sharp, I even was able to shave hair off my leg :D

Comments

[Oldprophet]

Hey, just wanted to mention that if you harden and temper your knives they will be stronger and will hold there edges longer. your can find a lot of info about this subject at bladeforums.com. I love the etching you did on this knife!

[Oldprophet]

Also wanted to ask to to post pics of the entire knife, I would like to see what the end of the handle looks like :)

[mechagen]

Hello,

I have a question for you about acid etching metals. Do you think it's possible to 'dye' the metal a specific color using a similar method to acid etching or not? and if so how would you do it?

[ElmarsM]

Hi!

Yes! It is possible, however consider that this process makes the metal become weaker against rust! I have tried something similar, only with electric etching, but you can simply put the metal into the FeCl solution, and "dye" the metal from light to dark grey color!

[fixfireleo]

very cool knife! would it be much harder to make a sword? by the way, you should be a model, you are georgous!

[ElmarsM]

Yeah sword is really one level too high for me, considering how much work I put in my knives, so I'm sure sword would be quite harder to make! Thanks!

[dvncan]

That's a great knife, one question: why, if you had enough steel, did you make the tang so small if you had enough to make it stronger?

[ElmarsM]

Thanks. I did so, because the the cow horn had limited space in it, in lenght, the hole in it was too short even when i drilled it, and I didn't want to overdo the drilling, so i just made the tang shorter! :)

[Garra23]

Really Awesome!! You did great!

[Garra23]

Haha you even added me in there. Priceless lol.

[ElmarsM]

Glad you liked it! :)

[afield4]

this is a wonderfull knife, did you have to temper the edge and if so did it effect the etch in any way?

[ElmarsM]

thanks! i didn't temper or heat treat it because i took steel from a massive saw that most likely was already tempered, and i think that tempering shouldn't affect the etch

[templerpadi]

could you do an instructable on how to make a knife without power tools because i dont have access to any :p

[ElmarsM]

wow, if this is quite time consuming, then working without power tools is incredibly hard, i could do it, but i have many other projects, so sorry, most likely i won't do it

[lilcorona805]

how do you make handle?

[ElmarsM]

I didn't make it, it's cow horn, i only polished it, and glued the blade into it

[lilcorona805]

how do you polish the horn or bone?

[ElmarsM]

i used very fine sandpaper (1000 grit and more), and polishing wax

[Ageless Kronos]

think I found my next project from you good sir :)