Here are three knives that I made.
My apologies for the slight reddish cast, these are super-quick pics and I'm wearing a red checked shirt.
The blades are mechanical damascus, the Marbles ripoff is 01+mild, the puuko and the trout/bird are 01+mild+nickel.
The topographic etch was done with hydrochloric acid (pool acid).
The colour stain was done with ferric chloride (FeCl3 - 42%).
After the colour stain they were let sit with a brushed on slurry of bicarbonate of soda for about 10 minutes, this was washed off, they were thoroughly dried and sprayed with WD40.
They were all brought to a high hand polish prior to the topographic etch, and polished again before the colour stain.
After the colour stain with ferric chloride they were lightly polished with worn 1200 W&D paper, then 0000 steel wool.
They were then sprayed with WD40, allowed to dry overnight and waxed with Antiquax.
The stain job was done over the laundry tub with a glass of ferric chloride and a toothbrush, the water was left running, the ferric chloride was continually applied and washed off until the colour I wanted was reached.
They were made about 20 years ago and have been sitting in a drawer wrapped in cloth since then, which I think demonstrates that we can store blades for extended periods unattended if the preparation is correct.
I've etched and stained more damascus, like this stuff shown, than I can count. I've cleaned and stained more keris and other SE Asian blades than I can count. I've never stained any Indo-Persian blades, but I cannot imagine that the process would be much different to that of staining any other mechanical damascus. Wootz might require a different technique, I don't know about this stuff, I've never cleaned nor stained it.
Pineapple juice, when it is good, is a great cleaning agent. It is a lousy etchant and a lousy staining medium.
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