Coffee Stains

[kai]

Hello Rasdan,

Wootz and pattern welded blades can require pretty different approaches to etching. Granted, also pattern welded pieces can easily damaged by overenthusiastic staining attempts but etching wootz (especially antique pieces) is even more an art. If you really need/want to etch wootz yourself, make sure to search for similar blades (origin and age and wootz type) which are still in stain as a reference. While FeCl3 can be utilized to etch wootz this is by no means the only nor likely to be the single best approach for the majority of antique blades. There's a lot of other etchants which may be suitable or a combination of these may be needed for optimal results (quite a lot of pointers and opinions can be gathered from the net). I'd certainly recommend to try very weak dilutions first even if this needs more patience. If the wootz blade has still a nice original surface which hasn't been polished with power tools, diluted oxalic acid may be worth trying first - just a wild guess though.

Regards,
Kai