All About Pocket Knives

Hi Guys,

Anyone know a safe method of bringing back the Acid etching on a knife blade ?

I have a Puma White Hunter which I think is 1961 but the Acid Etch is so faint I am afreaid to polish it up to see if there is more writing under the main Etch.

Any tip would be great.

Cheers

JT

JonTerry wrote: ↑Fri Dec 16, 2022 10:03 am Hi Guys,

Anyone know a safe method of bringing back the Acid etching on a knife blade ?

I have a Puma White Hunter which I think is 1961 but the Acid Etch is so faint I am afreaid to polish it up to see if there is more writing under the main Etch.

Any tip would be great.

Cheers

JT

Supposedly a #2 pencil will only remove rust and crud without removing the etch.

1967redrider wrote: ↑Fri Dec 16, 2022 1:30 pm

JonTerry wrote: ↑Fri Dec 16, 2022 10:03 am Hi Guys,

Anyone know a safe method of bringing back the Acid etching on a knife blade ?

I have a Puma White Hunter which I think is 1961 but the Acid Etch is so faint I am afreaid to polish it up to see if there is more writing under the main Etch.

Any tip would be great.

Cheers

JT

Supposedly a #2 pencil will only remove rust and crud without removing the etch.

Cheers Mate..............now...........

Whats a #2 pencil in English is that sorft or hard ? LOL

In the UK we use from 8B which is very soft ..through to 6H very hard ??

Is the number system in the US like this ? if so is #2 at the hard or soft end of the scale ?

#2 is the same as HB so medium hardness.

C-WADE7 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 16, 2022 1:59 pm #2 is the same as HB so medium hardness.

Brilliant will try this !!!

Thanks Mate

JT

Those blades are usually chrome plated, so using anything abrasive could remove the plating.

I never knew that White Hunters had chrome plating. I believe the knife transitioned from carbon steel to stainless at some point early on in production. Is your knife carbon or stainless steel? Does your knife have the date code on the guard? Can you post a picture of the knife to show the etching?

btrwtr wrote: ↑Sat Dec 17, 2022 1:45 pm I never knew that White Hunters had chrome plating. I believe the knife transitioned from carbon steel to stainless at some point early on in production. Is your knife carbon or stainless steel? Does your knife have the date code on the guard? Can you post a picture of the knife to show the etching?

Yup they made both, think the Chrome plating is true also.

The one I have is the last year of Acid Etching the Logo onto the blade before they started stamping during the forging process.

I have a couple of photos here which I had to mess witht settings to enhance the logo as it is very faint, heance my question about methods to revive the etching.

Haave a look at these mate.

Cheers

JT

If the depth of the etch is equal to the light pitting and scratches on the blade I don't know of anything that you could do. Sanding on a very flat surface and/or re-etching carbon steel with ferric chloride can help in some cases but I don't think that would work here.

You can test for chrome plating with gun cold bluing. It will discolor the edge or any other worn areas, but will not discolor the plating.
If the blade is plated, removing any of the plating will send you down the rabbit hole of the finish not matching.