Hi Ed and all..

Once again I've been prowling around at Tractor Supply and noticed they carry muriatic acid. Is this stuff any good for etching damascus ? The price seems to be cheaper than Ferric Chloride but I didn't know if it was worth messing with.
Thanks
Scott

Scott, I've never used it. A friend of mine in Texas uses it all the time. Why don't you try it on a bar of Damascus before you grind it?

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Before I learned of Ferric Chloride, I used muratic. Like you said it was cheap, and it does do the job. It has a couple of side effects that caused me to stop using it. One is that if you get it on you, especially if you have a nick or cut on your hand, it can be down right painful! Secondly, it fumes a lot, and if you leave the container open (even in the time it takes to etch a blade), everything in your shop gets a nice, light coat of rust. I personally prefer ferric for it's quality of etch. Muratic is pretty aggressive, and etches fast. Any longer than 10 min and your blade will be full of pits. In fact, I screwed up and left a blade in muratic while I went into the house for dinner one time, when I got back the edge was eaten away, and it was pitted so bad that it went in the junk pile! When you use it, try to do it outdoors, and keep it in a tightly sealed container.
Let us know how it works for you.

I use muriaatic acid....not on damascus but to eat the forge scale off blades before grinding. And like Ed said, always outside. After about 15 minutes in fresh acid all scale will be gone. Everyone knows how tough scale is and how hard it is on belts.

Michael Wise

Thanks for the help guys.
I think I will stick with ferric. I keep all my supplies in one area and had forgot about acid fumes causing rust.
Scott

I didn't get any rust, but the one time I used muriatic acid my throat was really sore for a couple weeks with a painful cough.

I thought I vented the fumes pretty well, too.

Maybe coincidence, maybe not.