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Acid Etching on Aluminum

September 29, 2009

My name is Shaun Bisset and I am writing to you from South Africa. I have started to make Bagpipes as a hobby, and I also make handcrafted knives. On the bag pipes there are aluminum ferrules as decorative features. Most pipe makers have these engraved by jewelers - as this is a costly affair I would like to acid etch a design on the ally by means of a positive/negative. I do this method on my knives on the blades which are made from tool steel. Please could you advise me, could I also etch with ferric chloride [on eBay or Amazon] on the ally to expose the pattern or design? Have never done this method on ally, so please could you let me know what the procedure would be step by step. Thank you very much

Regards

Shaun Bisset
- South Africa