Quote Originally Posted by JDM61 View Post
My experience is that unhardened steel will etch just fine. I have etched unhardened damascus guard and buttcap material i the past with no problem. With that said, I have been told that it will actually etch more slowly than hardened steel, which is a bit counterintuitive.
Your experience is wrong.
Harden half a piece of steel and leave the other half soft.
Etch that.
See what happens.

It is normal that soft steel etches a lot less, since the carbon is distributed in a different manner, and the crystalline structure of the steel is different. Which in turn means the chemistry is different.

If parts are hard and parts are soft, it looks like crap.