Etching steel

Thanks for all the advice. I had great luck with the electrochemical
etching process Mike recommended. I used a 9 volt battery as my
power source, but it drained too quickly. Today I purchased a slow
charging car battery recharger to use as my power source. I have
both stainless steel and regular steel to etch. The regular steel
etched great, and I will try etching the stainless tonight.

By the way, Ferric chloride does etch steel, even stainless steel,
but it eats away at the PNP mask as well, removing the fine lines
before it has etched much. Another disadvantage is that it is more
difficult to dispose off safely. The Ferric Sulfate (FeSO4) used in
the electrochemical etching process is used as a landscaping
supplement to green up lawns and shrubs. I purchased some Ferric
Sulphate from Carolina Biological Supply Company, since landscape
supply companies in my area do not carry it; our soil is already
iron rich.

I have found that single sided glossy brochure paper in a laser jet
copier works better than PNP paper. You can get it from an office
supply store, and it costs much less. Other people have recommended
clay coated magazine paper, which probably can be bought from your
local printer. It does not appear to be readily available on line.

Laser print your image onto the glossy side of the brochure paper,
then cut out the image that you want to transfer. I place the
cleaned, sanded, and degreased metal face up on a hot plate set on
“WARM”, set the cut paper on the metal, image side down, let the
metal heat up, then burnish the image onto the metal with a smooth
metal burnishing tool. After transferring the image, soak the metal
in water before peeling off the paper, then gently rub your finger
over the surface with soap and cool water to remove any excess
paper.

From there follow the instructions Mike suggested to me last week.
His tutorial can be found at

http://mordent.com/etch-howto/

Thanks again everyone, I appreciate everyone’s input.
Julie