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					Originally Posted by Yannis
					
				 
				Etching long blades is really a problem, specially if you cant unmount the hilt.  
(For "newbies": Do NOT touch a hilt from organic material with acid!)
 
For knifes i use a big jar were i can bleach all the blade and feel safe about the hilt. This way a solution 1/3 of vinegar for few hours gave me exelent results. Maybe a different solution or time could do something better. I dont know.
 
I prefer vinegar for 2 main reasons: 
1. It is cheap and easy to find 
2. In my country we produce a lot and it is "traditional" to use vinegar for thousand of actions, among them to clean things (my wife use it for cleaning the carpets    )
 
A friend sugest that for a long blade we have to make a "bath" from adhesive tape like this:  [_] where  [ and  ] are the sides of the tape and  _ is the blade. I have not tried it yet but it looks ok and I will do it.  
			
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 Yannis, do you have plastic waste plumbing tube material available in your country ?
Lengths of this material with a cap glued on one end makes a marvelous and inexpensive re-useable bathing chamber for etching .
Cut to needed length !