Don't try and etch the new fw3d

On fathers day i had a bit of time so i tried to etch the damascus since I like high contrast. I dunked the whole body in ferric chloride. The tail etched fast… really fast. Just a few minutes. The body, bezel and button however didn’t. So i dunked only the body and bezel to try and even it up. After possibly and hour or more of dunk time all i did was pit the surface of one of the layers. My guess is the body and bezel is stainless and the tail is not.

After few minutes…

An hour or two later…

I am disappointed :cry:

That’s unfortunate but maybe they are using 2 different grades of Ti alloy, with one softer for the knurled parts.

Lol, I think you’re a little confused. It’s steel not Ti :wink:

Wow, up until now I thought it was Ti. Says “Damast” on Neal’s page.

Yes, “Damast” is steel (mix of different steels).

I think Damast uses different grades of steel layered to produce the rippled pattern. Timascus is the same, but with Titanium. And it’s more expensive than Damast.

How many times have you used your FC it is looking a bit milky. (I have not etched in a while so my perception may be off.) It just looks like it may have run it’s course with how strong it is. Remember that Acid etching is not a perfect science by any stretch of the imagination.

Other things that may effect the results, how far off from each other chemically are the two host materials? You might also ask the manufacture what they used to etch.

OK my bad, I thought it was titanium damascus.

If its different types of titanium its called Timascus. :wink:
A bit strange how they name all these new exotic alloys, but I guess its the makers choice.
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@pinkpanda3310
You might try this if you really like the look of the etching. Sounds like the same problem your having.

Does a magnet stick to it, certain types of stainless will stick though.

Ti is sometimes referred to as mokuti. I don’t know what the difference is between timascus and mokuti…??

Similarly with steel = damascus, damast, damasteel . I don’t know if there is any difference???

I do know (NOW) that there is a difference in etching stainless and carbon steel :person_facepalming:

Edit: thanks 007 I’ll check it out

I’m just guessing from your comments that your acid solution is strong enough. There’s really no telling what kind of alloy it is.
Yeah, I’m with you on the alloy labeling, when you start adding more layers I think they have different names for that too.

I had another go at this tonight. I mixed up some hydrochloric acid with water and dunked it (but not the tail). It seemed to be working but kinda slow so I added a splash of the ferric chloride solution and i reckon that seemed to speed it up just a little. I didn’t keep time but it would’ve been less than 10min dunk time. I’m really pleased with the result. It didn’t dissolve the metal like on the tail so it still feels smooth to touch but the contrast is really nice :partying_face: I’m still mildly disappointed the tail appears slightly different but i’m not nearly as disappointed as before. Thanks for that link 007 it helped :beer:


Looks much better!

Awesome job pinkpanda. :+1:
That seem to do the trick, looks really cool. :wink:
Makes me want one now.

I think you did very well. It looks great.

Hot damn, I feel like buying one now and sending it to ya! Looks great!

GREAT work! I got one, hoping to do this, too. Did you take all the internals out and mask the threads?

That torch looks great, nice work OP. also, I think some of the terminology like damasc, Damascus, damasteel, etc refer to different alloys as well as brand names. For example, Damasteel is a Swedish company who makes Damascus. Damascus is the process of layering different steels together, if I remember correctly.

Yep, Damasteel is a trademarked name for a range of forge pattern welded steels made from powdered steel. Nice stuff. “Damascus” typically refers to the material produced by forge welding dissimilar metals (one of which is steel and the other is nickle, steel, etc.), then cutting, grinding, twisting, drilling, and further forging to produce a pattern. Interestingly, it is named after the city of Damascus, where is was believed to have originated. That original steel wasn’t made that way (look up wootz steel).

When one uses the same process on copper alloys, one gets mokume gane. The same process can be done to titanium, yielding titanium damascus. Timascus is a brand of titanium damascus.