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How to put food-safe black engraving on silverplate flatware

Q. Hi,
I have seen lots of hand stamped silver plated cutlery/flatware for sale on various internet sites. I would like to stamp some items myself for my friends wedding, but am worried about what patina to use to blacken the words. I don't want to use anything that may be toxic.

engraving on silverplate flatware

I use liver of sulfur ⇦ on eBay or Amazon [affil link] on stamped jewelry, or just a sharpie pen, but as the cutlery would be used to eat off or stir cups of tea, I am worried that these patinas are toxic.
Can you please help with a safe patina to use.
Regards, Kylie.

Kylie Young
hobbyist - Ulladulla, NSW, Australia May 21, 2013

A. I use a black tinted 2 part epoxy on most of the knives and such I make to fill in my mark and production information. It works wonderfully for me and doesn't have the risk of reacting with any food items.

Try it, it's the cheapest and most effective solution I've come up with yet.

Marc Banks
Blacksmith - Boone, North Carolina, USA

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