Acid Electrician

[Marius]

Thoughts?

[ducttapetech]

I like it.

[Marius]

It's an old beat up Electrician. The tools, blades and springs were made flat gray with... lemon juice (don't try this on any SAKs you really like, you may destroy them). The coating looks like acid etching, and is through the surface of the metal, and strong (perhaps more than the regular BO ). Two more pics.

[nuphoria]

That's very different, almost like a bead blast finish. I'd be concerned about rust getting in more easily.

Does it make the tools more grippy?

[Marius]

Yes, almost rubbery feeling.

[Lynn LeFey]

Looks interesting, but I'd prefer the rust resistance of the original finish, personally.

[Marius]

Thanks for the feedback! I suspect that the rust resistance is not that greatly reduced. It is not the polished surface that makes the stainless steel, although this helps a bit. And some tools are not polished to begin with (the can opener on this one is the heavy unpolished sort). But, this may make of an interesting next test, to see how a Vic SS part "etched" this way resists rust

[Gryffin]

Even though it's no longer polished, it could still be pretty rust resistant if you keep the blades oiled.

Back in WWII, the U.S. military used a phosphate treatment called Parkerizing to protect the steel of rifles and pistols. It created a porous finish which wasn't much protection itself, but it gave oil a place to adhere, and as long as it was kept oiled, it was remarkably effective, even in the Pacific theater.

I have an old Smith & Wesson .38 M&P that my great grandfather carried in the Merchant Marine in WWII. It was with him both times he had a ship sank out from underneath him, but it never rusted.

[ICanFixThat]

Very interesting. 

Looks REALLY similar to the grey blades that Wenger produced on a few models like the Alpine Blackpacker and their camo highlander.

I think we can call their grey tools acid etch?

We seem to be short a few pictures of this coating.

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

That looks great

[borgwarrior]

Lookin' good!

[Storky]

Great looking 

Do you use pure juice? What residence time?

Regards

Markus

[borgwarrior]

How did you use the juice? Pushed the blade in the lemon? Or you had bought juice?

[Marius]

Boiled the SAK in lemon juice (pure, what happened to have around; diluted with water works too) with a bit of salt added. Boliling like this after a while the small tools (can opener and awl) and springs become black. After a little longer the blades start darkening as well. The end result is that all steel pieces (including the middle rivet on this vintage SAK and the sides of the back springs) end being covered in an oily black layer. Some of that oily black layer washes out with water and what remains is the flat dark grey finish that can be removed only by sanding and polishing.

It is not perfect. The "etching" does not happen everywhere at the same time and depending on the boiling time, the bath concentraton and the SAK position the gray finish may end up not uniformly applied (some parts may remain shiny, some slightly darker than others). Also the boiling salty acid solution may attack the scales as well (although initially whaht it does is clean throughly and remove aluminium oxidation). So, please do not try this on any SAK that you do not want to see destroyed.

[Marius]

Looks REALLY similar to the grey blades that Wenger produced on a few models like the Alpine Blackpacker and their camo highlander.

I think we can call their grey tools acid etch?

Interesting indeed. Correct, it looks similar to what is shown for the camo Alpine Backpaker:



Did that have also the backsprings grayed out? Or just the blades, tools and the lock?

Anyway, it is possible Wenger did a similar treatment, just properly in a factory setting (no wasting good lemon juice either I imagine) 

[Marius]

A few more pics. Note the constrast between the worn out scales and the perfect shape heavy tools. This SAK was a strange one to begin with, with outside wear but unused otherwise.

[gustophersmob]

OK, so who is bold and daring enough to do this to a Spirit and see if it cures the slipperiness?   

[ICanFixThat]

OK, so who is bold and daring enough to do this to a Spirit and see if it cures the slipperiness?   

That's a very interesting idea.

[JAfromMn]

^+1
 I'd like to see a gray Spirit

[Marius]

OK, so who is bold and daring enough to do this to a Spirit and see if it cures the slipperiness?   

Sorry, I do not have one myself to try  If anyone is interested, feel free to PM me before starting to give some additional advice and avoid some possible mistakes that I did during my first time experiment.

[MadPlumbarian]

Thats pretty interesting, it kinda looks like it was stone washed, but VERY softly! just about sand blasted.. but very interesting!! I likes JR

[lowtech]

Thread Necro!
I was curious about the deatils of this - Did anyone try this out or develop it any further?
I guess the Electrician went in in one piece, didn´t it?

I need to have a look under teh sink to see if we have soem lemon acid /(which we use to descale teh kettle) and have a go with some loose Vic tools and  note the time / temp / concentration.

[rickinFL]

I love the idea of using lemon rather the ferric acid mix I have been using.  I will have to give this a go.