Big things come in small knife packages

As a kid growing up in rural Pennsylvania, knives surrounded my existence. Whether it was my Pap’s slipjoint and lockback collection that I’d ogle every chance I got, or working knives that we’d use everywhere we saw fit, it seemed that they were just a part of my life like apple pie is to America.

Slipjoints, specifically, have always been part of my purview. As a young’n, I was gifted a muskrat trapper Buck knife that my grandparents had given me, but kept on a shelf in a jar until I was old enough to open it. It was a real nail ripper. When I finally came of age, I got it, cut myself on it, had it for a few years, then lost it. I loved that thing, with two identical trapper blades, bolsters and bone scales. As the years go by, I remember it fondly, but can never recollect the exact look of it. Sadly, I haven’t been able to find one to match the memory.

You might say that pocket knives and slips have been my constant companion, but more to the point, small knives have been. It may seem odd, because I feel like I grew into my hands over time, but I have meathooks for em. At 9” wide, spread from pinky to thumb, and 8” call, you’d think I’d gravitate to larger knives. But I don’t.

A lot of life experiences I’ve had surround hunting and fishing and mobility. I never was one to be weighed down by heavy things, shoes, clothes, gear, or the instruments I used to process game. So it may make sense to you that I often carried around something small that worked, and that was often a pocket knife.

Sure, I’ve been hiking and hunting 20+ miles in a day with a heavy pack, and probably walked the same distance in a day trout fishing in remote areas, with only a pole, a pocket full of hooks, and a cup full of worms. But out of the two types of experiences, I always felt more at home just doing a walk-about, and not have to worry about much. Mayne to my peril if something bad would have happened, but adventure captures the hearts of the blissfully unaware.

I’ve gained a reputation for producing small knives too, as I understand it. I am not sure why. Maybe it’s because I naturally gravitate to them, and feel more at home with the fit and finish, and knowing what makes a good, small knife feel like it’s an extension of one’s body. I imagine that it’s just a natural evolution of putting myself into my work, especially as I push into uncharted territories as a knifemaker. Specifically, in making my own slipjoints.

My latest endeavor has been to convert a fixed blade bird & trout design, that was part of a caping set design used in hunting and safari, by Clay Gault, and turning it a slipjoint that had the same fit and finish. If you know anything about making small knives, big hands aren’t exactly conducive towards the nuances, but I manage to get it done on my fixed blade, I just have to have a soft touch. For slipjoints, the idea stays the same, but the execution takes it to a whole other level of precision. The relationship of the spring to the tang of a knife in a slipjoint, combined with the aesthetics of being flush in all three positions (open, half, and closed), having the “walk-and-talk” that’s so customary of a slip, and making it feel right in the hand, are all balancing acts. Too much here, not enough there, ruins the effect. Luckily, I think I pulled off my first splitjoint pretty well (See above picture).

With time, I’ll be producing more of this design, and do some interesting things with it. I’m pushing the envelope of my machining ability by milling integral bolsters, with dovetails, in the near future. But, I feel like in my mind’s eye, there’s something I want to do with this design, and it’ll take me places that will probably frustrate the hell out of me, and also give the world a real perspective into what I see, when I think of a slipjoint.

As I delve into traditional designs as well, I hope to share my experiences with them, and obviously my finished work. I feel like a boy living my nature filled youth again, and it’s really a pleasure to make pocket knives, even if sometimes it’s hard to wrap these sausage fingers around my work.

Here’s a trout I caught in Wyoming to make your day better. I let it go, but if there’d been a bunch of buddies around, it’d definitely turned into a supper conversation mighty quick!

Until next time…

Making Dovetailed Bolsters

I get asked quite a bit about my dovetailed bolster method. What I can say is, there are no short cuts to perfection, and out of all of the things I do that are knife related, I have gotten bolsters down pretty well.

One important thing to remember about bolsters, regardless of if you’re doing square edge, dovetails, or any other material, is that if you want to hide pins, you have to have like material stock. So, for nickel-silver for instance, which is what I did here, you’ll want nickel silver pins as well. BIG caveat here….So, you know that like material? Well guess what, not all nickel silver is created equally. Some alloys are different percentages. So you have a few options:

1. Pin and pray. This is where you take the same material in bolster stock and pin stock, and hope they match well.

2. Spin your own pins. This can be done in a drill press, mill, or lathe, and requires a caliper as well in order to match the diameter to your bolster holes. Also, you’ll want to make sure you use the same material as you will for the bolster, otherwise this tactic is wasted effort.

In this example I’ll use the pin and pray. I am not sure if I just pray so often that they’re answered, or maybe I have figured out some magical way, but I never have issues with my pins hiding. I think I have just been fortunate that the alloy has been very similar. I also don’t know as the bolsters patina, how they’ll look, so there’s always a chance I am not as clever as I think I may be. R&D will tell.

Preparing Materials

DISCLAIMER

Some of these images are out of order. The reason? I sometimes do things out of order, depending on what the material is telling me. Keep in mind that your own efficiency processes may lead you to do things a little different. I often have to knock off burs and other dings if I drop anything. Where I start and end up is the same, but the path to get there is anyone’s guess. Kind of like life, ain’t it?

I am using nickel-silver in this case, but you can apply this method to any metal you’d like to hide the pins on.

Firstly, having a square material is pretty essential to maintaining tight tolerances on the geometry of dovetail bolsters. You can accomplish this squaring a lot of different ways, but I use a machinist square, and my disc grinder. Just check on all four surfaces and ensure there are no gaps.

Also, flattening your material is essential, as your fit and finish of your bolsters are greatly effected by gaps. I hold the tang and bolster piece up to the light, and if there is any gaps, they’ll show.

Sometimes due to the milling process, there will be a more flat side to your bar stock. Pick the side that has the least bow to it, and flatten that. I use a machinist block and Indasa’s Rhynowet that I get from Texas Farrier Supply, and in a circular motion, knock off all of the high spots. The lower in the grit you start, the easier it is, but remember that you’ll have to remove those lower grit scratches until you don’t see any light. In this case, if I started at 100 grit, I may see some small gaps if I left it at just that. Your mileage will vary, but always keep the removal of previous grit scratches in mind when working with metals.

Remember to cut your material to the width you need it, based on the pin holes you drilled in the tang. It’s important to remember to cut your material to account for the angle of the bolster top, and dovetail, as you don’t want your pins to interfere with the angles you put on the top and bottom, as peening will deform them and you’ll have an almost impossible time making your flats flat again. Leave room on either side of the pin to accommodate your bevels, plus a little extra. I’d give you measurements, but this is an aesthetic choice at the point after you have enough for your pins.

I also make the piece long enough that I can do all of the angles, and then cut in two pieces, so they are exactly the same plane. This is a lot easier than doing this process 2x, and then having mismatched angles. Just do it all at once and save yourself headache. It’ll also look really uniform.

Next, once it’s flat on one side, you’ll notice sometimes that there are rolled edges on the other. I mark this so that I can put the outward facing 45 degree bevel, up where it meets the ricasso, and it’ll get ground off. This makes it easier not to fight the material, and just blast it away when you’re removing material.

Setting Up Your Machine

I cannot stress this enough, square is square, and anything else is….well…not. In the second picture, you’ll notice that my work rest for my grinder is not 45 degrees. It’s probably 43-42, which I will eventually modify to make correct 45s, but as long as this angle is absolute on both the bolster, and your handle material, you’ll always get a flat joint.

Gettin’ to Grindin’

I start by grinding the 45 on the outer face of the bolster, up to a very slight line that’ll transition from the ricasso to the 45. This flat has to match the grits of the 45, so you’ll transition from 45 to 90 degree on your work rest until you get it to 3,000 grit. I’ve found that the Nielsen Grinder setup helps with the grit transition, because the platen pulls off of a magnetic head setup. I have a few plates, and I just switch out the grits.

Also, something to keep in mind is that, the flat plane gives you a good indication of how square your 45s are. If you squared your work piece in the beginning, the flat will tell you if you are getting off the mark while pushing your bolster into the disk. Switching off from hitting the 45 and 90 degrees as you go up the grits also gives you the chance to fix the flat plane, if you happen to over grind the 45 and bring it to a knife’s edge.

This is what the outer side will look like when you get it to 3,000 grit.

Now it’s time to buff. I use a Kirkland’s jewelers ring clamp vise and it keeps the work piece from flying out and killing you.

You can see where this is pretty clean. Always look out for facets and grit scratches. Once these are attached to the blade, you’ll have a really hard time correcting things that you could easily do while not attached.

I will get to 3,000, and use a scratchless ping rouge. When you are buffing, go light. The heat and compound will leave troughs or waves sometimes if you go too hard. You’re trying to add a really light finish, not use the buffer and compound to remove deep scratches.

The next part is the easy one. For the 45 that your handle material attaches to, you don’t need to have a high grit grind or polish. Some of this is because you want a surface that epoxy can bind to, and the other is it won’t be visible. I’ll lean more towards it’s important to have surface for epoxy to bind to, but don’t make them too course, or you’ll have a janky edge when you are shaping your handle material. I usually take them to 220 grit.

This is what it should look like once you’re done. I also will knock off burs on the machinist block and ensure the inside flat surface that rests against the tang is perfectly flat. Remember that picture earlier? Yes, this is the stage I took it in.

Now cut that piece in two! remember to knock those burs off with your flat sandpaper. Light and easy.

Knife to Bolster Setup

There are a million ways to skin a cat, but I’ve found that setting perfectly parallel bolsters can be accomplished with a file guide. Bill Behnke and Bruce Bump sell good carbide faced file guides, and they can be used in a lot of different applications in the knife shop, so just invest in one. You can find hardened steel versions a lot of different places, but for file guides, I love carbide faces.

The first step for me, is to take a machinist square and mark a line where I want the edge of the bolster to meet the ricasso, and mark the line.

Then, I bring the file guide up to that line, and fasten it down tight. Just imagine a sharpie line there, I took this right before I removed it and made the line.

Next, assuming your tang edge is square, check the file guide against the square to make sure it’s…well…square.

Next, take one side of your bolster and butt it up against the guide and then flip it over.

At this step, I have found the easiest way to fasten the bolster is to use super glue and an activator. You can get these a lot of different places, but Texas Farrier Supply has them both as well.

A dab on either side of the tang where the bolster meets will work. Just remember not to put it on the dovetail unless you like a lot of cleanup afterwards. Spray your activator on the glue and let it stand for 2-3 minutes. I find that the hold will be stronger if it’s left a few minutes.

The next thing I do once the glue is dried, is take the other side of the bolster and butt it up against the guide, and look at the geometry and alignment to make sure I am not missing anything. if it looks like the angle that meets the tang, and the legs of the dovetail match, this is usually good for me. I have an eye that’s sensitive enough to notice slight angle differences. If you don’t, then find a tool that’ll help you gauge that it’s correct.

Drilling & Setting

On a flat surface (I use G10 as a drilling surface), lay your bolster down so the file guide rests on the opposite side of the drill surface, and drill through the first side.

Keep in mind, brass, nickel-silver, sterling silver, and stainless steel, all heat up and cool down at different rates. With super glue, it has a point where it’ll get gooey when it reaches a certain temp. This is good if you need to remove stubborn pieces that are adhered with it, but it’s bad business for drilling, if you’re using it to secure a work piece, and it gets too hot.

Use a sharp drill bit, and don’t generate too much heat, otherwise your bolster will pop off, and it’ll be a chore to get it back where it needs to be for you to maintain your hole position, AND symmetry of the bolster dovetails. Cutting oil works to help ease the drill work and keep the heat down.

Clean up your holes a little and prep the work space to attach the other side. I use acetone to remove any oils or goo from the other side. Make sure the bolster fits flat too!

Now, you’ll drill the holes, going through your previous bolster, the tang, and into your other bolster. Be careful on this one!

Not only are you using the nickel-silver as a drill guide, but you’re generating heat here too. Too much and both will come off, and you’ll only compound your frustration. I tend to go slow on this. Nickel-silver doesn’t require an exact speed and feed because it’s soft. Stainless will.

Once that’s done, and if you didn’t screw anything up, you can check your pin stock to make sure everything looks good. At this point, whether the pin stock is straight or not is mostly moot. You’ll hide them through peening. There are some caveats to this, as if your drilling skills aren’t the greatest, and you end up drilling non-straight holes, when you peen, it can shift your bolster. Try to always make things as straight as possible, that way you don’t have to correct for a previous mistaken in your next process.

Next you need to pop off the bolsters. Don’t be too heavy handed with this. Nickel-silver mars and deforms easily. I find that taking a screwdriver and positioning it at the edge, then twisting slightly, usually does the trick.

You can also take a soft faced mallet and wrap on it, or use a torch, but you can make a bolster fly pretty easily, or heat up your work piece and knock out your heat treat, or catch things on fire. So, be careful.

Superglue mostly disintegrates with acetone. I pop my bolsters in a glass jar with acetone, and I take a paper towel soaked with it to the tang. You can use an X-Acto knife to scrape any glue residue off. Just make sure it’s completely free of debris, because peening to the tang will show gaps if you have anything obstructing.

You can also hit the inside of your bolsters on the machinist block with sandpaper, lightly. You want to ensure they’re flat, and don’t have any gunk that you can’t see.

Don’t remove your file guide, you’ll want it to ensure your bolster position for peening.

Next, we will taper the pin holes.

The idea of this is to create a mouth for the pin material to expand into. By creating this cone, you not only mechanically fasten the pin to the bolster, but you also give the pin material space to fill any area of the hole that might have surface variants.

My tapering tool was a little big for this hole, but it still worked.

At this point, you need to clean your pin holes, and your pin stock. Use acetone, and do it well. Any oil or dust or anything that sits between the hole and pin stock will show up after you peen.

Sadly, I don’t have pictures of the peening process. Mostly because it’s ugly, laborious, and you wouldn’t want to see it. Also, because I didn’t take pictures…I usually pay most attention to the details and what I’m doing at this phase, so forgot about y’all for a minute. Sorry sorry.

A few things to remember about peening. When using a hardened or carbide file guide, it’s easy to hit it and mess it up. Ask me how I know…Also, peening bolsters that are not adhered at all leaves the piece a propensity to shift. You’ll need to always be watching to make sure as you’re peening that the bolsters stay flat to your tang, and you are only expanding the surface material into the tapered hole. There are tricks to getting them flat to the tang if your pins are shifting, but you’ll want to avoid this if you like not being frustrated.

Tip on this, you can use a piece of micarta, G10, or wood, to place against the bolster and a flat surface, and wrap it a few times to knock it back in place. Just remember to use a backing piece on the other side of your bolster, as you can easily mar the surface, and depending on how thick you made them, it can leave dings in them that you won’t be able to grind out for sake of the margin of error you left yourself.

When you grind off the pins, they should look like this. If they don’t, well, let’s just hope you went slow and didn’t mess them up. It’s hard to remove pinned bolsters. What you can do is take a hole punch and knock the pins out, and then you likely will have to start all over again.

You can cut with a bandsaw or grind off the overhang on the tang, and the knife should look like this.

Final Thoughts & Tips

We aren’t going to cover fitting scales pictorially in this article. If you’ve made it this far, it’s a walk in the park.

A few things to remember though are:

1. It’s easier to attach one side at a time, epoxy, let dry, and drill, then it is to do both at the same time.

2. I will attach one set of scales, make sure everything is ABSOLUTELY in contact and won’t shift at the point of the dovetail, and then drill after. Make sure your scales are dead flat too. All that time making sure bolsters are flat, then having gaps in your scales, is amateur hour at the knife shop, and you don’t want that.

3. You will use the same process of back drilling through your pin holes for the opposite side. Just be very careful. Scale material is soft, and your bit is able to wander if you aren’t watching what you’re doing.

4. Cut and fit your scale pins after everything is fully fastened. In a dovetail bolster, you have several different planes of contact that the scale has to adhere to. If you want tight fitting scales, you need to watch that the little suckers don’t slide on you, or cant or twist.

5. When attaching your pins, you can usually use CA glue or epoxy.

6. Make sure when you are doing your final fit up that everything glue wise is removed from your dovetails to the tang. Sometimes I will have to drop some acetone in there and use the sharp edge of an X-Acto. Sometimes you can also break just the very tip of the X-Acto off and use it as a quasi-chisel. Sometimes I have to do this alot, because messes do happen.

Below is the setup for one side being done, and the material being sawed away.

Here is the final product:

I hope this was helpful. If you need any help, just ping me through the Contact Us form, or email me directly at LSKnifeco@gmail.com. I’m happy to answer questions as they come up for you!

Making a 45 Degree Pancake Knife Sheath

There are many ways to go about making a knife sheath. The styles of sheaths are as varied as the knives they accompany. One thing for sure is, a knife sheath should be a compliment to the knife, and not just a crusty old gym sock you cover your knife in. My personal opinion is, if you are proud of your knife, make or buy a sheath that showcases its beauty.

Depending on where you come from, and how you learned, a pancake sheath can be a fold over sheath with or without a welt (The thicker center cut of leather that protects the blade edge from cutting through the leather, or one like I make, that is two individual pieces of leather, without a welt.

Material

There are tons of different options. For this example, I am using vegetable tanned leather as the base. The thickness (Or weight) of leather is dependent of what you are trying to accomplish. The thinner the leather, the more superficial the function of the sheath. In other words, if you don’t want the knife to cut through the side of the sheath, and if you want it to look good, stray away from leather that is too thin. I use approx an 8oz or 1/8” thick leather or greater.

You’ll want thread, I use a flat braided synthetic wax thread. Typically 2mm thick. I picked up some colored thread recently and the bulk of this will show what it looks like with that. It’s called MIUSIE Colorful 284Yards Leather Sewing Waxed Thread

The rest of the tools are normal leatherworking tools. Pricking iron, awl, edge beveler, utility knife, leather stain, and contact cement.

Process

I start off with a template. Others have made pancake sheaths, so I am not inventing the wheel here. But, I did have to design a pattern that fit my knives, so I drafted out this and cut it out, and that is the primary pattern I use for all of my pancakes.

Blocking and cutting out the leather is the next step. On this example, I marked on the top side of the leather, because I was going to veneer it. For Most applications, I would recommend using a pen on the suede side of the leather because those will be hidden. Also remember to turn your template over and trace out the mirror image of the template, otherwise you’ll have made two exactly the same cuts, waste leather, and feel silly.

You’ll want to do as much before the glue up, staining and stitching as possible. This means you’ll want to:

1. Punch your belt holes out. You can do this either with a ready-made belt loop punch, or use a leather punch and punch a round on either end of where you want your slot, and then use a utility of X-Acto knife to connect the holes.

2. Edge bevel the tops. if you try to do the suede side, you’ll end up having a gap in between the two sides when you cement, and it makes it a pain to go back and fix. Lots of sandpaper and cursing.

3. Burnish your edges. I use a hand burnisher initially, and then an elk antler that is super polished to get a high sheen. You can use something like Gum Tragacanth. I use the Tandy Eco-Flo which works pretty well, or water. Honestly, I have had mixed results with Gum Trag prior to dying, as it seems to act as an inhibitor for the dye to penetrate, so have mostly been using water.

I outline where my knives will be placed, and use pencil on the suede side. This helps me to target the cement where it needs to go so I have a pocket to put the knife in and wet form it later.

I switched to Barge All Purpose Contact Cement as I had a bad experience with the pictured Tanner’s Bond Contact Cement turning watery on me. It ended up permeating the elephant ear leather veneer I was cementing on, and I raged a little. If you want some good instruction on order of operation, cement and dye help, Weaver Leathercraft puts out some awesome material. I have referenced them often in my own self-education on leathercrafts.

Once the two sides of the pancake are cemented together, I do any final trimming, sand the edges to final shape on my belt sander, and do a final burnish with my burnishing tool and antler, and then I punch my stitching holes.

This was an oil based leather dye job.

This is an alcohol based leather dye job.

I have always liked Fiebing’s USMC Black leather dye. It is, however, an alcohol based dye, and has its own set of challenges in finishing. Weaver Leathercraft has a pretty good explanation of dye types. The oil based dye I illustrated above is Fiebing’s Pro Dye Chocolate.

Whether you’re using alcohol or oil based, I have found the easiest way to handle dying is to cement and stitch prick your sheaths, and then dip dye. This requires a larger volume of dye, but the finish is way more consistent, and it takes all of 10-15 seconds. With alcohol based dyes, I will say that the dye penetration isn’t as deep, so you may find you have to do several cycles with them, especially dark colors like the black. If you don’t, when you are buffing, you’ll find that the brown color of the base leather pops through. Great look if you want to antique, but not if you want a solid black look.

I use a simple saddle stitch. I measure about 7x the stitch length for the thread so I have enough left over just in case. Another thing I do is backstitch the four from the beginning, and four from the end. That way, I have plenty of backstitches in case there there is ever a stitch failure.

I perform the stitching after the dying, because I have had to touchup dyes before, and it can leach into white threads. The colored thread I mentioned earlier is a little more forgiving because it is heavily waxed. It does, however, require that you hit it with a lighter to melt the wax, fuse the stitches, and get rid of the pesky white tinge look from stitching.

If you want, now is the time to add your Fiebing’s EdgeKote. This rubbery coating can add to, or detract from the look and feel of the sheath. I masked my sheath on this example because I didn’t want the brown EdgeKote on the lighter tan elephant ear leather. I have since found that a few companies sell an applicator that makes it a ton easier. The one I have found to be ideal quality is the Tandy Leather Craftool Pro Edge Dye Roller.

Once dried, I apply Fiebing’s Neutral Leather Balm with Atomic Wax and buff. I think it looks good.

Finished Products

On the veneered sheath, the same process occurs as a 2 layer pancake, except that you cut a third out. You’ll want to remember to cut it out on whichever facing side you want to make your sheath. You can make this a left or right side carry, so think accordingly.

You’ll just apply the contact cement to the sides of the leather or veneer material that’ll contact together, and make sure to massage every surface to ensure contact. I use a flat faced hammer to gently tap on every surface to make sure there is contact.

In addition, whether you want to have threat lines show through the veneer, or be hidden underneath is up to you. I liked the look of this unadulterated elephant ear leather and the designs on the skin, so decided exposed stitches would take away from it.

In Conclusion

There are a million and one ways to skin a cat. Maybe in actually not that many…but the point of knife making and leather craft is to research and find out what’s out there, and experiment. Your order of operation on how you process your raw materials and get them to a finished state are up to you. What tools you use, largely up to you. The dyes and thread pattern are also up to you. The most fun and probably most daunting aspect to any craft is the learning curve. What I encourage you to do is not sacrifice quality for ease. If it takes longer, invest the time. If you take your time and think through every step, you’ll get closer to a favorable result than just winging everything and being satisfied with it looking like garbage. It might not all look the prettiest while you are going through your steps. Your cuts might look off, your dye might start off uneven, and your stitching can get off track quickly, but taking your time and triple checking your work goes a long way. You often can find a mistake and fix it if you analyze each step. But once you get done, the end result is the cumulation of a thousand mistakes. How many you make and how you fix them along the way determines the end result. Happy making!

Beginning To Electro Etching Knives

In a lot of ways, I am old school when it comes to blade marking. Traditionally, before the age of electricity and etching, hot stamping and hand chiseling/engraving your name or mark on blades was the only way to do it. When I started out, it was with a cold press makers mark that was put in a striking tool, which was gifted to me. It was an Evers E6HR and it worked. The largest problem I found with the design, and my use, was that striking would skip the blade, and replacement would be difficult if not impossible. So, one shot, one stamp, no take backs. I screwed up a few blades this way.

The second iteration of this was utilizing a cold press stamp that went into a hydraulic press, which is what I use today. The stamp is expensive to make, and the press is from a fellow that is out of business now, and I acquired it after I purchased my mentor John Weever’s knife business of him. It works great, is accurate, and most detrimentally to the marking process, can cause stress risers in the steel if it’s not thick enough.

As a result of all of this, and also venturing into smaller knives, I wanted to have the ability to etch my stamps.

There are a few things you need to consider when choosing an etching process. Mainly:

1. Power Source

2. How you source your stencils

3. Electrolyte

4. Etching process

Power Source

Firstly, there are a wide array of power sources to choose from. Everything from Professionally made, to DIY, to alternate purpose, such as a car battery charger and power supplies.

For the power source, there are two main functions that make up the required elements to etch a blade. DC current performs a deep etch by removing material utilizing electrolyte. AC creates oxides that adhere to the blade and darken it. Amperage is also a consideration, and I’ve seen others use anywhere from 2-20 amps. By and large, the most frequently used is 2-5a.

You can choose to utilize a power supply that only uses AC power, and you’ll not deep etch anything, but you’ll have a superficial dark mark on the blade. This can be problematic if you require hand sanding later on, and it also removes the mark with normal wear and tear.

If you utilize DC only, you’ll etch the blade steel, but it will not leave the oxides during AC cycling that crisps up the mark. To get around this, you can use a colorant such as Black Brass Metal Finish by Birchwood Casey. I chose to go this route, for two reasons. Buying an electro etcher usually starts at around $250. Building one, typically $110-$120. Buying a DC Power Supply, $70.

Stencil Sourcing

There quite a few processors of stencils. Because I have only utilized one so far, and haven’t tested their stamps, as I’m just getting started, I’ll list them, and review the stencils once I get a little further along. I have done plenty of research, testing, and etching without stencils before, so take the stencil provider n00b experience with a grain of salt.

Lectroetch Inc. is a business in Ohio that I got as a referral from another knife maker. Britt over there was extremely communicative, and walked me through their process quickly. If you have a logo design, they will create their files off of this, so really, your imagination and the limitations of the stencil medium are pretty much it. Their stencils are a “…synthetic woven fabric base impregnated with the 3L plasticized coating…” and opposed to vinyl stamps that you can print on a Cricut or Silhouette, hold up beyond one or two uses.

I emailed sales@ and got quick turnaround. That’s what I like. If I am going to figure out concepts and test results, I prefer to fail forward fast. Iteration is the name of the game.

Electrolytes

In effect, an electrolyte is the conductive medium for the current used within elecro etching. Sources are many for manufactured electrolyte, but the main ones seem to be from International Marking Group (IMG), and Lectroetch.

For many DIY’ers, the electrolyte can be made up of water and salt, with the potential to substitute water for vinegar, which may increase reaction times and etch depth. Recipes are varied for home made electrolyte, up to and including snakes blood, I am sure. But the main component is liquid that carries the electrolyte, to form a reaction when current is passed through it. You gamble with consistency when mixing it yourself, and for the time I have on a blade, I’d rather it be done right the first time, and nothing left to chance on the exact mixture. With that being said, for other projects I’ve mixed salt in water before, and it’s performed alright.

Etching Process

Some of the best videos on knife making I have watched are from Kyle Royer Knives. His new knife making curriculum is definitely something to check into. As part of his promotion of that course, he plugged his etching process in his YouTube video - Hunting Knife Part 1. There, you can signup for his newsletter, and get the video on etching sent to your email.

I don’t have a lot to say about the process other than what Kyle has already said. I plan on using the same process. DC current w/ electrolyte, and Black Brass to darken it.

This unit is the Tack Life MDC01 Variable Voltage/Amperage Power Supply. It goes up to 30V, 5A and includes alligator clamps. I like it because I can adjust the voltage and amperage to suit the project. Whereas High Carbon steel can be etched at a lower voltage/amperage, stainless more aggression, and more cycling, because the metal composition is designed to deter corrosion.

Another element of why I wanted a variable power supply is because I would prefer not burning out my stencils after a few uses. This allows me to fine tune the voltage and amperage to get as much life out of my stencils as possible without burning them.

The next thing I did after purchasing the power supply was to make an electrode. This is some paper micarta I had laying around, with a milling machine clamp bolt. I drilled it just shy of 3/8” and friction secured it. In other works, I pounded the block into the block until it was through, and snug.

The electrode gets wrapped at the tip with felt, and that felt rubber banded to the block. It then is dipped in your electrolyte and dried to not be sopping wet, and then connected to your gator clamp, where the positive is attached to the bolt, and the negative to your blade, and you’re off to the races.

In Conclusion

I am sure I will have a ton of feedback on the etching process once the stencils get in. I plan on diving into electrolytes, different electrode designs, power supply settings, and such. There are a ton of videos out there on YouTube to go over the actual process, but look at Kyles for sure. His is the best in my opinion. Why? Because his technique accounts for a lot of the caveats of using a stencil, and getting a very favorable etch. HIs processes for layout, tape up, evaluating results, and finish, are all encompassing. If you want intel on electrolyte creation and making your own etching machine, there are videos out there that I will likely cover at some point here, but the process, his is money.