I just made a blade from some nice large strand cable. I did an early etch after final grinding and polishing to get a handle on what the pattern would look like after completion.

I etched in 50/50 FC for about about two or three minutes while rubbing the black crap off with my hands. I nuetralized with Widex.

I then raked an old green chrome buff and turned the speed down low and made a few passes. Light at first, then applying more pressure. The pattern is there, but it's a bit weak in the contrast. I also get a little too much hamon from the edge quench.

I'd like less hamon and far more contrast with the decarb lines (with major emphasis on the contrast, regardless of the hamon). Who can walk me through a good etch/finish procedure for this?

The search button will, its been discussed hundreds of times

Andrew,

In my shop, I have good luck mixing 5 parts water, 1 part FC for cable. I also make sure blade and etch are 70 degrees minimum. I etch for 5-10 minutes, sand (clean) with 1500 grit (or steel wool) in distilled water, then back into the etch. I repeat until I get what I want. Hope that helps.

I just etched a guard made from low-carbon cable and it came out pretty nice. I think the trick is to do what Larry says and use a low dilution of FC and a long etch time followed by a polish of the high spots. That way you get some topography going, and when you sand the high spots you get shiny high spots and dull gray low spots. Dunno what a long deep etch will do with the hamon, though. I etched my guard about half an hour, with three cleaning throwns in at somewhat random intervals.

You might want to reHT and do a full quench, hardened steel etches differently then unhardened and you won't be able to hide the hamon. The hardened part tends to etch better too.

heres my KITH knife from the scavenger hunt...cable. I did a long deep etch to get lotsof topography, then stel wooled the black out...hamon is visible, asI left some oxdes there for visual appeal.....this was just normal 3 to 1, warmed, for who knows how long....cant remember!

http://www.schottworld.com/kith/update/4.jpg

Thanks guys. I'm gonna play with it tonight, see what happens...

tiktock thats a sweet knife!did you forge the damascus yourself?

try using muratic acid or dilute sulfuric the cable is all the same material. The material will etch cleaner showing more pattern using these acids