[Jewelry making - Article 00927] - Re: [Orchid] Chemical etching of copper

[Ian W. Wright]

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    The problems you have are due to the nail polish being too hard and
    brittle. I have successfully used permanent felt tip marker pens but
    you do need to use the fat type which will put a lot of ink on the
    metal in one go - you can't go over the area again as that lifts off
    the original ink. You can make up a good resist using shellac and a
    flexible resin like gum lac or gum tragacanth dissolved in methylated
    spirit (Stoddart solvent) and I usually colour it with a spirit dye
    so you can see where it has been applied. If you are trying to
    achieve a deep etch, you will find you have problems with
    undercutting of the metal and, in severe cases, this can destroy the
    clean edge of the etch by etching down, sideways and then up again so
    removing the metal under the edge of the resist. In the printing
    trade where this used to be a particular problem they used 'Dragons
    blood' to prevent it. This is a red powdered resin which they dusted
    over the plate part way through the etch and then heated the plate
    so that the resin melted and coated the sides of the etched area
    before continuing the etch the plate. 

    The normal ferric chloride etchant is as good as anything but it is
    much more effective if you use it in a bubble tank as it is
    imperative that you continually remove the fine iron dust which is
    formed by the etching process from the etching areas. The tank need
    be no more than a waterproof container big enough to take the work
    with the pipe from a small fishtank bubbler held in the bottom of the
    tank. I use a length of thin plastic pipe with a number of small
    holes made along the length of the tank. 

Best Wishes,
Ian
Ian W. Wright
Sheffield  UK


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