In article ,
scutt wrote:

I am helping my 11 year old nephew make his second knife ( First attempt
won him 1st place at the Fair :-). I want to keep introducing new skills
so the plan is to try etch in a simple design on this knife . The steel
is an old leaf spring . Does anyone know what to use as a resist and
which acid would work for this application ?

Resist: Bees wax or the tarry stuff used to paint cut surfaces where
tree limbs once attached.

Etchant: Ferric Chloride

These things are sold at electronic supply houses for making printed
circuit boards.

In the 1970s in Baltimore I used the wax plus ferric chloride approach
to etch a friend's name into his knives - he worked as a cook, and
wanted his knives to stay his.

A year later, he was going to work on his motorcycle and was stopped by
a traffic cop, who found the knife roll and charged him with carrying a
deadly weapon.

The Judge took one look at this 10" chef's knife with BARTLETT etched
into the blade with 1" high letters, said that this was clearly a
tradesman's tool, and dismissed the case.

Joe Gwinn