Etching

[angmc]

Hi

I'm thinking of having a go at etching. Never done it before (very new to all processes actually) and I don't have a laser printer so I was thinking of just drawing the design on the silver and using stop out as the resist and ferric nitrate for the etching. Would this be doable? and if so could anyone recommend where to get the ferric nitrate from in small quantities?

Thanks

Angela

[china]

Yes you can draw the design thats how it was done before Bromides and laser printers ( yes I have been around that long) this also means you are not limited to designs that you can print you can draw any pattern you wish, with out the steps of scanning it into a computer and then printing, I can not advise about the purchase of ferric nitrate as I am in Australia, I think a company called mega Uk has been mentioned on the forum before (assuming you are in UK)

[David_Amos]

Hi Angela
If you live in the UK you can get Ferric Chloride fluid from Maplins, if you do a search do a search for Etching Fluid and it comes up. Hope this is of some help.

David

[angmc]

Thanks for the replies and info. There's a Maplins near me so I could pop down there. What's the difference though between Ferric Chloride and Ferric Nitrate? Do they do the same job and is one more toxic than the other?

[trialuser]

Ferric chloride is really for copper, doesn't work well on silver, cheaper though 😀

Sent from my XT1580 using Tapatalk

[angmc]

Ah right in that case Maplins might not be the answer as they only seem to do Ferric Chloride. I'll try online.

[enigma]

Ferric Chloride is rubbish on silver IME.
I got Ferric nitrate from Ebay.
I also do all my etching using a stop out varnish rather than printing out, Im not sure how much of a resist the print gives?
I do know you can get a pretty deep etch on silver using stop out varnish and ferric Nitrate.
This is a pendant I made that way

[Dennis]

Yes, there is a chemical reason for that. Silver chloride quickly forms an insoluble barrier to etching, while silver nitrate is soluble in water, allowing the process to continue. Silver nitrate, the product formed, is also an aggressive caustic and could be used to remove warts.

Not everybody knows that. You're a champion etcher BTW Sarah, Dennis.

[enigma]

Interesting thanks Dennis, I actually bought the chloride and ended up swearing a lot when it wasn't etching lol
The pendant was a total pain to do as the it was only 40mm so everything was very tiny to paint the varnish on but the nitrate does do a great job of etching exactly around the varnish.

[angmc]

Love the pendant! Can I ask a couple of questions...how long does the varnish take to dry and how long did you leave it in the ferric nitrate?