"scutt" wrote in message
...
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 ?
Ken Cutt

Ken - maybe search this group or google for electrical or electrolytic
etching. I have not done it at home but recall reading about it (probably
here!) - if I recall correctly you can use an auto battery charger and the
etchant was quite a bit safer than ferric chloride or acid.

I used a system years ago for marking tools & prototypes that used some sort
of waxed paper which was marked in a typewriter (remember those?). A mesh or
something was used to clamp the paper to the workpiece. The paper was
flooded with electrolyte and the mesh & workpiece hooked up to a power
supply.