So when i first started doing my knives using damascus steel i etched them using boiling vinnegar. Then after that i was told it didnt need to be boiling and that it could just be room temp vinnegar. And then somone suggested i might see better results by using coffee. So i decided to give it a go and here are the results. Now im happy with the etch for the most part but this etch method has left the steel with these weird colours on it, kinda gold to almost a grey blue. Is this the normal effect of a coffee etch? Also this was after 1.5 hours of etching. Over all while the coffee definately works im not quite happy with it. Il be stripping this one off and trying to etch again later with something else. Trying to track down some FC. Any other tips or house hold etch solutions are welcome.

I think the colors look nice, but it would depend on the look you are going for. 

Might help those that know if you included what alloys you used.

12 minutes ago, Daswulf said:

I think the colors look nice, but it would depend on the look you are going for. 

Might help those that know if you included what alloys you used.

Its 1080 and 15n20 for the alloys.

It wasn't used on a knife, but I've used Rootkill (copper sulfate pentahydrate 99%) and table salt in water (about a 1/4 cup of each in a quart of water - 1:1 ratio) to etch steel.

This was 30 minutes in the solution. depth of etch was roughly 1/3rd to 1/2 mm. It's the ends of a propane tank, so mild steel?

 

1 hour ago, John in Oly, WA said:

 

Thanks for the idea, i might just have to give that a go but holy smokes that is an amazing piece right there!

So i finally found a local supplier for some ferric chloride and im much much happier with the results. Same knife as above, cleaned off and re etched.

Your blade looks nice!

Thanks, it's a tank drum I'm making out of an old propane tank.