Wire Damascus Blade .... prior to etch

Now .... Kurt always tells me I don’t have to polish it if Im going to etch it. But, actually that’s not quite accurate. Unless you are making a Mountain Man Tool. But then you are gonna have to keep all the fire scale and mess right out of the oil quench. Any refined knife is finish ground after Hardening. You “Could” just forge something extremely close to shape and then harden and temper ... letting all the Scale. But then you’d most likely tie on a handlebar with rawhide... pine pitch ... and take a shower every few months (no matter if you need it or not). Haha.

Ya see, if you “finish grind” a blade after Hardening, it’s surface will carry whatever grit scratches of belt/stone you used. (Probably 60 grit for rough work). If you would etch then, the acid would FOLLOW each scratch right thru the blade. You could desolve the blade right down to a feather of itself, and that last sliver would still have heavy scratches etched/copied on the surface.

If you have ever painted a car, you know you sand/prep the bodywork very smooth, before spraying the paint coat. Same reason. The paint will just Telegraph/Mirror the scratch pattern. No matter how many coats you apply.

So; to professionally etch a quality Damascus Blade, you have to professionally polish the blade first. Part of the extreme amount of work in one.

Thanks for Reading! Just using the Conversation with Kurt ‘cause that is the most reasonable expectation. There’s always some wierd reason Gary has to do abunch of Extra hidden steps. Haha. Smile
Gary



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/2018 10:51PM by barnespneumatic.

That shine is blinding!

Scott

Very nice Gary
Scott I agree super shiny bright . It's funny thinking of that crusty picture of the blade coming out of the oil after hardening/ annealing process . The shine is only masking the beauty of the Damascus. I can't wait to see the etch .Yikes !

Thanks
Kurt

Thought you’d enjoy this. Now - the rough blade is Jake’s Blade. I don’t have an actual pic of the heat treat of your Hunter blade. But the Carbon Steel Damascus look like this.



And groundband polished ....



The hunter blade ground and polished before etching.