Marine Sword

[shonn]

I have a fellow that would like his name and rank put on this sword..
Has anyone done this before?
I did not want to jump into something that may be too hard of metal for my carbide bits to cut. If anyone has some experience in this area please give me some advice.
Or if it is soft enough let me know.
Thank you for your time.

is there a special font that is normaly used for this kind of sword?

 

[Raul Hinz]

Shonn I did a Marine Sword for a friend and it had a acid edge name so I have to remove the old name and
re engrave a new name. carbide works ,and the font is old English god look
Raul Hinz
'

 

[pilkguns]

I have done about 20 military swords over the years, mostly for retirements or promotions. The decoration on the blade is acid etched, and the blade is normally too hard to engrave sucessfully. I use a carbide tipped dental burr to do single point dotting, and I do all the lettering , whether script or block as a series of dots. Letters too thin? just add more dots. Get your script a little crooked? add more dots. It lets you deal with the hardness of the metal, and wonderfully matches the look of the acid etch.

Of course the scabbards are plated brass, and engrave easily, although be careful, sometimes the plating will peel. Most of the currently available military swords are made in India these days .

But no, there is no special font. Just whatever you think matches the style of the other ornamentation.

 

[Marcus Hunt]

Why not acid etch it? It really shouldn't prove to much of a problem and if you get your resist right you can write the details onto the blade using a dip pen. The lettering will then match the rest of the blade. I notice the blade says stainless and I know ferric chloride will etch this. It just takes quite a while. You can localize the etch by building a small dam around the area. I use beeswax but I know others use modelling clay. Just make sure you take the precaution of covering all the surrounding areas with some kind of resist as you don't want any splashes on any other part of the blade. Finally, don't be frightened by etching. If you take sensible precautions you should get a much better result than attempting to go in with carbide cutters on a hard blade. Good luck.

 

[John B.]

Hi Marcus.
It was great to see both you and your Dad in Kansas again this year and sure enjoyed your singing and all the fun and learning..
I know both of you are pretty expert at acid etching and I wonder if you do it in your regular engraving studio, outside or in a seperate facility.
If I do any in my regular engraving room I am afraid of the fumes rusting other steel tools.
What do you do in this regard , please?

Best regards, John B.

 

[joe seeley]

I have started to do the etching in my shop. I use it to lay out lettering prior to cutting Ive had no problems with fumes from the cronite steel etch, or from feric cloride. The feric cloride works well on the damascus butt plates, and grip caps that I make but takes about 2 hours for a good etch. The cronite steel etch will give an etch of .003 in about 15 min. (although I have not tried it on stainless). If I can find a few minutes I will try a peice of stainlss in the next day or so and post it to let you Know

 

[joe seeley]

I tried the cronite steel etch and had no results so the I tried feric chloride and it did show signs of etching.
I only let it set for about 5min. so I dont know how long it would take for the depth of etch that you may want. this would very greatly on the type and quality of stainless that you had. My test piece was 302 series
I would recommend some experimentation on assorted types of stainless before attempting to do an expensive or non replaceable piece

 

[Marcus Hunt]

Some good advice from Joe. If you're not familiar with etching do some practice pieces first. Ferric Chloride is slow and that is it's only drawback although sometimes this can be an advantage as you can monitor the rate of etch easily. Nitric acid doesn't normally touch stainless although I've heard that mixing it with hydrochloric acid will work (incidentally, I think this mix is refered to as Aqua Regis or 'Royal Water' as it's the only acid that will etch pure gold). I once enquired how the Spanish etcher, Montejano, etches his stainless steel knives and he said adding some pure iron fillings to nitric acid ( = ferric nitrate?) will make acid that will etch stainless steel.

John B., it was great to see you at Grand Masters too my friend. You have lead a very interesting life, thanks for telling me about it. Congratulations on your Lifetime Award also. Regarding where I do my etching, well, I only have a small workshop so I have to do everything in it. Obviously I use the acid as far away from my tools as possible on a separate bench but in reality there is no problem with fumes if you keep the place well ventilated. Just remember to cover the acid as soon as you've finished with it. The one thing I will caution about is check the etch every 5 - 10 minutes especially if the acid is fresh; indeed, if you notice the part bubbling away furiously check it sooner. Some steels bite quicker than others.

A few weeks back I was etching a double rifle and the forend lever was taking forever to bite to sufficient depth. The acid was weak and nearly exhausted but sometimes that gives a better result. Anyway, I added some fresh acid to the mix and got a beautiful etch so in went the next batch of parts. At the 10 minute check I noticed that the grip cap was bubbling away ferociously and when I removed it it was like a moonscape! This is where as a professional you have to be able to think laterally to get yourself out of the s**t, but that's a whole other story. The moral is that to remember not all steels are the same and that some will bite more readily than others so double checking when using fresh acid is vital. I stress this is Nitric acid I'm talking about and Ferric Chloride should be fine.

 

[James Mitchell]

If you have a knifemaker nearby, ask him about electrochemical etching. Most of us use that process now for marking our blades after heat treating. It may not be as "artistic" as handwork, but a photo stencil can be made, using any font, almost any size, and the etching takes about 45 seconds. No fumes, no mess and the quality is excellent. The mark is permanent, and it does not mar the area around the etch.

 

[shonn]

thank you all for the info i will let him know that the job looks like it needs to be acid etched , he can make the choice

 

[John B.]

Thank you Joe and Marcus.
One of the advantages of living in the now gun-shy California is that the good weather allows me to do my limited amount of etching outside.
But as Marcus pointed out, you have to keep your eye on it and this can become a lot of wasted time going in and out.
With your advice I will try to do small jobs in the shop now and see how it goes, thank you.
Also thank you both for pointing out your experience and the effects of different acid on various steels.

James, as far as the electrochemical etching goes I have done a little of that, but thank you for your info.
Some years back Brian Pawley made a scroll backbone etching machine and screens and I bought one to
etch practice plates with scrolls for some of the student practice.
I believe that GRS now uses laser equipment to to mark some of their excellent practice material.

Best regards, John B.