stonewashing a blade

[Irelander]

Hey guys. I was perusing Serge Knives website the other day and fell in love with the stonewashing I saw on his blades. I see that Spyderco offers some stonewashed blades as well as many other makers. Anyway I have been researching DIY stonewashing and I think I am going to give it a go. I have an old Kershaw that I don't use so I am going to start with that. If results are good, I'd like to stonewash my Ulize blade and my mini-Griptilian (not sure it is a good idea though since the Griptilian is a combo blade). I have no doubt that I can get good results after watching some of the youtube videos and reading some tutorials. I am thinking of acid etching the blade first then stonewashing to get better contrast in the stonewashing.

Anyway, my main question is in regards to sharpening after stonewashing. My main sharpener is the standard Sharpmaker kit. I figure the blade will be pretty dull after the stonewashing. Will the medium and fine rods that come with the Sharpmaker kit be coarse enough to sharpen up that dull of a blade?

[LC Kid]

Hi Irelander!


If your edge is in good condition you can perfectly resharpen it with the regular SharpMaker Mediun (gray) & Fine (white) Rods after acid/stonewashing the blade.

If you want or need to reprofile your edge then I suggest to use the SharpMaker Diamond (silver) Rods. It's gonna be faster and easier for that when comparing with the Medium Rods. And once you use them then you can follow your regular Gray / White Rods sharpening.

[xceptnl]

I would say that you could resharpen with the Sharpmaker after stonewashing. A word to the wise, I would suggest getting the blade dull prior to stonewashing. This will prevent possible chipping from the stones contacting the fins sharp edge. You could accomplish this from doing work with the blade or just by making a few light passes (edge perpendicular to the stone) on the medium stone to remove any fine edge. I would say you could refer to my modification album, but that was on the old vbulletin forum. I didn't realize until just now that the albums were not part of the new forum.

[Irelander]

Ok thanks guys. Any issues with stonewashing VG-10?

One more question. I was planning to dip the blade in some ferric acid to darken it a bit before stonewashing. Is there a way to do this an preserve the factory markings?

[i am travvy]

i just did a endura not too long ago. get some nail polish and put it on the pivot to protect that. i also put some on the edge but you dont have to. i used pcb etchant solution from radioshack and it darkened it up nice but cant see the spydie logo anymore. for stone washing i just grabbed a few handfulls of that fishtank gravel and then went in the yard and found a few bigger sized rocks and put them in a tupperware container with some water and dish soap. taped up the lid, wrapped it in a towel and threw it in the drier with no heat for 30 mins. came out pretty good.

oh yeah. i also used the sharpmaker with the medium and fine stones and sharpened it right back up.

[xceptnl]

Ok thanks guys. Any issues with stonewashing VG-10?

One more question. I was planning to dip the blade in some ferric acid to darken it a bit before stonewashing. Is there a way to do this an preserve the factory markings?

In theory, you could paint the logo with the nail polish and protect it. I also recommend that you protect the edge, lockbar interface of the tang, and inside the pivot hole. Just to be better safe than sorry. I can't recall how long I actually dipped mine since it has been so long ago.

[Irelander]

Is there any benefit to bead blasting the blade before acid etching? The blade on my Ulize is pretty shiny. I thought maybe a light bead blast may dull it some and better take the acid and the stonewashing.

I'm going for a stonewash that will look something like this:

EDC knife by Serge Knives

[Studey]

Bead blasting it first will give a darker etch and stonewashed, as it creates tiny pores that will be darkened, but aren't reached as easily with the stones.