Home etching - personalize your razor

I was out buying some Hookah tobacco ( yeah I'm a big fan ) and I saw some henna paste there, the kind they use for temporary hindi tatoos. It was like £1 so I got a tube. Afte playing around with it I shaved it off with a box cutter (you apply the paste on clean skin and take it off after it hardens and tints the skin, I used a box cutter blade) and I noticed that it was acid and it eched the blade (cutter blades are cheap carbon steel - similar enough to razors in chemical composition). So I wrote my name on my razor and then washed it off. I included a picture, but I buffed the blade since then so only a ghost of the original etching remained - subtle, just the way I like it. After removing the paste ( leave it on for 5 minutes) you get a dark grey print. If the original logo on your blade is now worn off, it is a good way to personalize it IMHO. :) It says "Michael" on mine but due to reflection it's hard to notice.

Nifty! :)
So simple!

That's an interesting idea. I've thought of bringing home some etchant we use in our dental office to etch blades: http://www.henryschein.com/us-en/Sea...eyWord=etchant The base is a gel and the active ingredient is phosphoric acid...works good on teeth, should be great on blades.

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Originally Posted by red96ta

That's an interesting idea. I've thought of bringing home some etchant we use in our dental office to etch blades: http://www.henryschein.com/us-en/Sea...eyWord=etchant The base is a gel and the active ingredient is phosphoric acid...works good on teeth, should be great on blades.

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Test it on a disposable blade first to see effects, might take a lot to buff off it it gets too deep in the steel. Apply with a tooth pick. Mash up the tip with your teeth to soften the fibres.

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Originally Posted by red96ta

That's an interesting idea. I've thought of bringing home some etchant we use in our dental office to etch blades: http://www.henryschein.com/us-en/Sea...eyWord=etchant The base is a gel and the active ingredient is phosphoric acid...works good on teeth, should be great on blades.

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As mentioned, use a different blade if you have one. Phosphoric acid is also a common household rust remover such as CLR. I know from experience that phosphoric acid can make a blade turn black. No worries... it will sand off but I'm just giving you a friendly heads up.

Nah, i have no plans on trying it anytime soon. The stuff we use though if formulated to rinse off...heck, it rinses off teeth :) When I do try it, you can be assured that I'll try it out on a test piece first.

This is something I've been interested in. I don't want to mess with all the really dangerous or difficult to dispose of chemicals to etch a blade if I can avoid it.

I think it was a Joe Chandler custom wapi I saw pics of on here not long ago with a lion etched on the blade.

I would love to make my own custom etching on the blades of some of my razors, but have yet to find out anything that I could do easily or conveniently.

Would love to hear any insight on this matter :)

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Originally Posted by avatar1999

This is something I've been interested in. I don't want to mess with all the really dangerous or difficult to dispose of chemicals to etch a blade if I can avoid it.

I think it was a Joe Chandler custom wapi I saw pics of on here not long ago with a lion etched on the blade.

I would love to make my own custom etching on the blades of some of my razors, but have yet to find out anything that I could do easily or conveniently.

Would love to hear any insight on this matter :)

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Any indian store should have henna paste. just ask

Some interesting ideas in this thread.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...d-etching.html

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Originally Posted by avatar1999

I think it was a Joe Chandler custom wapi I saw pics of on here not long ago with a lion etched on the blade.

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I'm pretty sure the razor you saw belongs to Ookla - IIRC, Joe didn't do the etching, it was done by a third party off this site. Ookla may be able to tell you who it was - why not send him a PM and ask?

I've had some success with acid etching and electro-etching on copper and brass using home printed circuit board supplies. The trick is getting the metal prepped - sounds easy, but isn't! It needs to be thoroughly degreased which usually involves the use of a pickling agent after some type of degreasing agent. You design your image in photoshop or whatever, and print it onto special clear plastic (mylar) sheet with a frosted side - frosted side takes the ink. The metal is sprayed with a UV resist, dried, and the design is taped to it - it will curl into the hollow of the blade if snipped round and taped down. It is then exposed to ultra violet light and washed - the parts of the resist covered with ink will remain soft and wash away - these parts will be etched.

You then either cover the rest of the metal you don't want to etch with the resist and expose it to UV again, or make a small dam around the design that will hold a pad moistened with acid without letting it spread elsewhere.

If you don't want to use strong acid you can use a suitable electrolyte (eg copper sulphate, 10% hrdrochloric acid, etc), suspend the blade (called the anode) in it with copper wire and connect it to a car battery (or smaller - 6v at 4 amps should do it), and suspend another piece of metal (stainless will do - called the cathode) in the electrolyte connected to the other pole of the battery.

The same process as above makes use of simple salt water as the electrolyte and is described in detail here.

Regards,
Neil.

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Originally Posted by mosley59

I'm pretty sure the razor you saw belongs to Ookla - IIRC, Joe didn't do the etching, it was done by a third party off this site. Ookla may be able to tell you who it was - why not send him a PM and ask?

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Nope, Olafurson. 100% positive on this, he is my shave sponsor and friend as well as fellow resident of Indiana. And as far as I know, Joe did the Emerald Wapi.

I did ask Ookla about his etching though, and he sent me here. Hopefully that will feed the addiction for you all :D

I have parkarized a lot of knife blades and a few hand guns. Phosphoric acid is what is used. I don't know if the CLR would be strong enough to do the job but it is easy to do on your stove in your kitchen. It should work for etching easily enough.