Etching

Some of my samples I previously did

A friend of mine asked about etching metal.  He has a project he would like to do.  It involves etching 1/2" strips with sayings.  He wants to make them into bracelets.  Today we did a trial run so he could see the steps it takes to finish one piece of brass.  He plans to make 50 bracelets.  I had the supplier cut my sheet of 24 gauge brass into 6"x1/2" strips.

Step 1:  rounding down the corner edge on the grinder

Step 2: find tune the edges with a fine hand file

Step 3:  clean up using a very fine steel wool

Step 4:  decide what design you want on the strip using a sharpie or use a rubber stamp     with permanent ink or both.

Step 5:  mount each strip on a piece of tape, we didn't have electrical tape so we used masking tape.  Each strip is mounted on the tape with the design side up.

Step 6:  using a glass pyrex dish pour the etching solution about 1/4 inch deep.

Step 7:  suspend each strip in the solution and set timer for 30 minutes.

Step 8:  check metal at 30 minute mark.  We liked the etching so we removed the metal strips.

Step 9:  nuetralize the strips using baking soda in a dish.

Step 10: rinse in cool water and clean using a rag.

Step 11:  polish up the strips using steel wool.  

Step 12: using a black patina solution brush it on and let set for a few minutes.

Step 13:  clean off the solution and rinse strip in cool water.

Step 14:  polish with steel wool and all the raised areas will polish up.

Done!  Oh no, we're not...we still need to make them into bracelets!  Remember he wants to make 50 of them!  Big job but he's very excited and happy with the results of our trial run.   We spent two hours in our trial run.