Hi, wel dont get me wrong as I am not against etching. For example; I would certainly clean pepperskulls blade up a bit if it were mine. After the first clean up I think I would be able to judge if the piece was created with a lamination or not.
Though I have seen some blades which were put in acid until all oxidation was gone and until the bare metal; leaving a strange greyish shine to it (or strange brown flecks/stripes!) and -so to say-in fact all history was removed. Really a pitty; piece destroyed actually.
I have also handled some pieces so heavily oxidated that the only resource was to put them into a strong acid (and no sanding and specially no sandingmachine which leaves those nice small circles, which many of you will also recognize!!
). Personnally I like to leave just a bit rust as it gives the piece a bit character. But I would also etch a blade to bring a lamination up more stronger.
>>repeated etching does go deeper and deeper removing the imperfections out of iron; just the same with polishing silver; every time one takes away a tiny surfacelayer away. And it can alsoactivate other chemical processes as oxidation after cleaning<<