shamshir w. scabbard restoration/conservation advice

[GePi]

Hello,

time to dig up one of my old threads again to show how my efforts turned out. It has actually been quite some time since I had the pommel cap reaffixed and since I had repolished the blade of my shamshir. But I ran into trouble getting a consistent etch on the blade with some areas not taking the etch, usually near the edge (see attached picture). This is probably due to some mistake in my pre-etch cleaning.

I have recently posted a thread with my latest restoration effort of a Persian khanjar and I did try something different there which kind of worked out. Since I got an unexpected free weekend, I wanted to try if I could transfer this method to a longer blade. This did not work as planned unfortunately and I got an inconstistent etch again. In a bout of frustration I tried something different, this time repolishing the blade with the etchant still on it, kind of using it as a lubricant, and to my surprise I got an almost perfect etch with the exception of a small area under the languets which I could not reach at the time. Not something I would want to repeat, but the result is almost perfect, so I will let it be for now.

The pattern is rather unusual. It starts out with long stripes like a sham pattern at the base at the blade, then starts to fade out at about the middle, becomes first light, then dark and then towards the tip turns into a tight pattern, somewhat like Indian crystalline wootz, with areas of different colouring all along. Either the swordsmith did not know what he was doing or was not interested in making a consistent pattern in the first place.
It is not what I was expecting when purchasing the sword, but it is rather interesting and growing on me. I will probably still try to selectively etch the areas of the blade under the languets to give a bit more of a constistent look, but then leave it as it is.

Has anyone who does restoration work himself run into the same etching problem as me? I must make some really basic mistake, since I have read all I could find about the process and it seems I am the only one who produces this particular flaw.


Cheers

Gernot