Acid etching-Step two-The etch

The purpose of this blog will be to show you the steps of acid etching. Please do not try this until you take a class from a qualified instructor. Acid etching can be very dangerous.

Safety first. When I acid etch I wear a long sleeve shirt , jeans and closed toe shoes. I also use heavy duty gloves, goggles and a face mask. You must be careful and use all precautions when working with these acid products.

I set up outside. The best time to work is when the temp. is between 70 and 80 degrees. You do not want your acid to get to hot.

First I fill two large containers with water. In a third glass pyrex dish I will put a generous amount of baking soda, and enough water to cover the baking soda. The baking soda will neutralize the acid.
Next I will slowly pour the acid into a fourth glass pyrex container.

Next I place my metal into my acid solution. I then wait for the acid to do its work. I can only etch one metal at a time. Different metals require different acids and, or mixes. How long the etch takes depends on how deep you want the etch to be, and the metal you are using. Sterling etches a little faster then copper and brass. 

Each dip takes any where from 30 minutes to several hours.

When I have the depth of etch I want in my metal, I remove the metal from the acid. I carefully put the metal into the baking soda solution. This solution will bubble up. When the bubbling stops I move the metal around in the solution making sure that all of the acid is neutralized.
The next step is to submerge the metal in water.

My metal is etched. Tomorrow I will talk about the next two steps,
 The clean up and cut.