Thread: Etched or Engraved?

This Kama razor looks like the blade is engraved, that is cut into the blade rather than some sort of chemical etching.

Originally Posted by Hart

This Kama razor looks like the blade is engraved, that is cut into the blade rather than some sort of chemical etching.

Etched is my Guess.

Which ever way it was done it looks to be pretty deep. I don't think a light polish with Flitz or something similar would hurt it if that is what you are thinking. You could always mask it off too and polish around it.

Bob

I had a revisor that was similar. I don't know the process but engraving doesn't go deep and even etching usually doesn't go that deep either. maybe a press of some kind.

I'm not interested in purchasing that one. I noticed how deep the etching was and how the cut parts had a regular texture to them and wondered. A little rough and uneven too.

I have a few razors that have a deep etch and have been wondering how they got them so deep. I have been experimenting with etching with ferric chloride and haven't been able to get near as deep without the etch distorting. I was able to get a deeper etch with applying the etchant solution and rinse and reapply the solution, but it still wasn't near as deep. I suppose if I used something more corrosive it might get alot deeper.

Originally Posted by JSmith1983

I have a few razors that have a deep etch and have been wondering how they got them so deep. I have been experimenting with etching with ferric chloride and haven't been able to get near as deep without the etch distorting. I was able to get a deeper etch with applying the etchant solution and rinse and reapply the solution, but it still wasn't near as deep. I suppose if I used something more corrosive it might get alot deeper.

Do not think you could get a true etch with FC,is not acidic enough.I do Know that fantastic (deep) etchings were done on firearms using a wax masking technique and Nitric acid.

I believe most of that style of "etching" were actually stamp forged, with the design built into the forging dies.

Definitely not stamped, but acid etched.

I have seen the rubber dies used to coat the blade with the resist in some book or other - they look like a regular old-school printing stamp and were dipped in liquid resist (either wax or a gum - usually 'gum arabic' - to which a light-sensitive hardener like potassium dichromate is added) then stamped on the scrupulously clean blade.

Exposure to a strong UV light source - or even the sun - hardened the gum resist. Unfortunately the pot. di. also gave off carcinogenic vapours, despite being in use regularly when I was at college in the late 1970s and used for silk-screen printing and hardening felt in hat making. Seems like the poor old hat-makers either got it from mercury or pot di inhalation!

Photographic processes were also used, having the benefit of the whole blade being dipped in the resist, a negative applied, exposure to strong UV light which hardened the resist not covered by the dark areas of the negative, then washing off the soft areas and dipping in acid.

In the other process, once the rubber stamping had dried a resist was applied to the rest of the blade by hand - usually a bitumen-based printers resist.

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by JSmith1983

I have a few razors that have a deep etch and have been wondering how they got them so deep. I have been experimenting with etching with ferric chloride and haven't been able to get near as deep without the etch distorting. I was able to get a deeper etch with applying the etchant solution and rinse and reapply the solution, but it still wasn't near as deep. I suppose if I used something more corrosive it might get alot deeper.

You can get a fairly deep 'bite' out of a ferric chloride etch, especially in copper, if you use it in combination with an electric current - electrolysis. In fact you can use salt or even copper sulphate instead of ferric chloride - they are a bit safer in use.

Regards,
Neil