Just thought I would share this with anyone who is new to knife making, and wants a super easy way to put a nice etched logo or makers mark on their knives.  I use a stencil I got from a real nice fellow named Ernie, at Blue Lightning Stencils, but you can also coat your blade in wax or nail polish and scrape away the bits were you want an etch to happen.  Here is what you need, salt water, a couple wires and a 9 volt battery.  Photos are of my rig, and of the knife I etched.  Its for someone in a local Beard Club, I've done a couple knives for these guys, and they love that I can etch their logo into the blade.

Red(Positive) wire attaches to blade.  Cotton ball soaked in salt water and placed over the surface to be etched.  Black wire pressed into cotton ball.  It is that easy.

Pretty COOL!!!

CrookedPath, How long do you hold it in place?      Dave

I gave it 30 secs.  You will definitely want to test it on a sample first.  The saltiness of the water seems to be a factor in how quick it makes a mark.

Build one of these and use it to have better control over the process:

http://www.tacticallysharp.com/reviews--info.html

Great source

I cheat and use a model railroad controller, direction controls polarity, speed controls the output power.  One terminal clips to the tang the other clips to a Q-tip for doing the etching .

That's a great idea. I'm going to share it with some of my younger knife making friends. It should be very cost effective for them. And would give them a way to etch their projects without having to wait for the weekend to come to my place.

My first try.