I was very happy to see an article on etching that didn't involve an exotic chemical that I need to buy at a jewelers supply house. This one I can just go the super market and pick it up. I think that I will now be trying some small projects. I have seen some etching on the knife making forums but have never read them till now and found this one that is very similar to this months article http://www.navaching.com/forge/etching.html. This fellow has some interesting things.

Me too! This month's issue was jam packed with fun things to try. I etched a piece of bronze with the section of the US Constitution that deals with impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors. The etching came out a little uneven and probably not as deep as I would have liked. I figure that is due to using bronze instead of copper. However, it is very cool.

I am excited to try again. Now I have about 3 cups of used solution that has settled out with some copper sludge on the bottom. It is a clearish gray blue color. Can I resuse that stuff?

Also some notes: You can make the salt go into solution quicker by setting the container in a pan of warm (not hot) water. Kind of like a double boiler. The PnP works great. The woodstove magnet was a fine idea, until I tried it and it would not stick to my stainless steel iron. I used cotton-linen setting and it was fine. Be sure to let it cool before taking off the plastic!

I have been reading the Orchid forums and they seem to be having trouble with using silver, has anyone here tried  the silver?

The article did say it would work on nickel silver. i looked up nickel silver, and from what I read, it's not anything you want to be etching or sanding or working with because of the lead content and scary diseases!! http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/nenam/metal_safety.htm

I don't think that nickle silver is all that bad if the proper precautions are taken. It is a nice material to work with but it isn't silver and that is what I primarily work with. Almost any of the metals will cause you some sort of problem but nickle does have it's own set of problems but don't be so frightened that you totally ignore it for jewelry applications. Not all alloys of nickle (Germain) silver contain lead.

 I've tried this a couple of times now, and am so pleased with the results.  I was really glad to see this article.  But what do we do with the copper salt solution that results??  I know it can't be poured down the sink, but can it be poured out on the ground without bad results?  My local Hazardous Waste folks didn't know what to tell me...

Glad to hear you guys are getting some good results with this.

We asked a chemist, and he said that actually the disposal of the left over solution was simpler than we'd originally thought.

The copper salts (leftover sludge) were the thing that we were most concerned with. But he said that old copper pipes flake off small bits of copper all the time, so this small amount produced by a small etching setup wasn't a concern.

Just dilute the solution with plenty of water, and pour it down your drain or into your toilet. 

Simple! 

One advantage of living where we have extremely hard water is that our water pipes are coated on the inside with a mineral coating therefore we have no loose chunks of copper or lead for that matter coming loose in the water. Just rock like chunks. However if you have a septic system where your salts are not diluted by vast numbers of households using the waste water system it is best not to put them down the drain. It is for this reason that I do not have a salt based water softener in the house. Salt is a major pollution of ground water and soil.

That's a good point, Bentiron.

I'm so used to my city plumbing that I didn't even consider our septic system users. If I were on a septic system I wouldn't pour that solution down the drain either.

I loved experimenting with this technique.

Unfortunately I didn't have any luck with the technique on sterling silver, I also tried etching it with the same solution but using the rectifier and that didn;t work either. Perhaps I didn;t give it enough power.

The metals that it did work on was

*copper

*brass

*guiding metal

*nickel Silver

*Shibuichi (15% and 25%)

*aluminium