Thread: Etching a vintage blade for restoration

Any one who has restored a blade with an etching has been there at one time or another- making the difficult choice of a flawless finish or preserving an attractive or historic etch. Murphy's rule of restoration says the final blemish on your blade sits just deeper then the etching itself. My question is does anybody have experience recreating the list etching in a blade? I have seen videos of custom guys like Charlie Lewis use an etching machine to apply their own logo- so why not lost etchings?!

I know that if you photograph the etching and bring it in to photo software you can easily select out just the etching and turn it in to a vector format that basically recreating the outline if the lost etching.... My question is from that point how do you ho about making a stencil? Has any one managed to do this?

Any feedback or pics of what people have done would e appreciated.

You can get etching kits for making circuit boards for electronics, they take you from a picture in your computer and all the way to an ready etch.
Most of them work for steel, otherwise you just have to tweak the etching fluid and / or use some galvanic process.
I use Iron sulfate and a plating rectifier.

Originally Posted by Lemur

You can get etching kits for making circuit boards for electronics, they take you from a picture in your computer and all the way to an ready etch.
Most of them work for steel, otherwise you just have to tweak the etching fluid and / or use some galvanic process.
I use Iron sulfate and a plating rectifier.

Thanks for the quick reply. My concern is mostly in making the stencil, as I know there are nice etching machines out there.... I know custom makers usually have there logo on disposable stencils- I'm just wondering how they get to that point... Is it special order through a company or is it something you print out of your printer? Do you print it and that cut it out by hand?

Any insight in to the stencil making bit of this equation would be helpful... Sorry I wasn't more specific in my OP.

Also I'm kind of curious why we don't see more customs made with etched faces... We know etched blades are popular vintage razors- I'm surprised we don't see custom etching on blades more often!

Some print it on overhead film and cut, others order them.

I know there is some threads here about it.

I still can't forget the razor I saw here with paw marks laser cut on the spine... want it!

I have thought about this a fair bit. The photo etching process is fine if you have a "clean slate" to work on. If you are trying to do a restore and have some of the original work left it get much harder very quickly. The mask will have to be exactly the same size (how do you account for the curvature on a hollow ground?) and positioned perfectly in order to match what remains.

The only thing I have come up with would be to apply a masking media to the existing etching and then use a scribe as the artists used to do to remove the media from the areas that need touch up. A very long and tedious process for extensively etched blade.

Here is a simple how to

How to Acid Etch Steel: 11 Steps - wikiHow