Ok well i got the image sent to the person that made the stickers stencils for me in the past. But while i wait and see what they say i contacted a place that makes a lot of the stencils for some of the well known knife makers, I sent him the image and this is the best they can do.
Now this stencil would be reusable over and over, but these stencils also cost around 60 bucks each. But depending on how much stuff you want etched with that image will depend on if its worth it to you.
I sent my buddy a message to find out about making that smiley into a stencil. They are sticker stencils so they can only be used once each, but i asked what it might cost to get around 20 of them or so of the smiley. And if they could get it 1/4" or whats the smallest it could be done.
1/4" may be hard, ill practice and see what i can come up with. Of course there wont be any color, but i may be able to just etch in the area of the gloves and eyes and darken in the inside of the smiley. I need a little more practice anyway so ill play around with it.
I have seen a few people make stencils out of masking tape and a razor blade but im not real good at artsy type stuff. Etching is simple once you have the stencil though. The guy who sent me the stencils didnt make them himself, one of his neighbors did, but ill talk to him and see if he can find out what it would take to get some small stencils of that smiley. Its a pretty simple picture so it might be easy enough. The world in my picture has a lot of edges on the countries so it was hard to get it to cut out right if done too small.
And since your pretty good at artsy crafts maybe you could design a stencil too, heck we may could work something out where i ship the etcher to you for a little while to play with too. You can see my results on a first attempt, with a little practice it shouldnt be too hard to make some excellent pictures. Drawing and cutting out the stencil is the hardest part.
A buddy of mine sent me a home-made etching setup and it works great. here is a quick pic of the etcher A/C and D/C.
Another buddy sent me some stencil stickers..... So I went ahead and gave etching a try. I practiced on an ontario RD4, which is basically my test/practice/experiment knife. Its the knife i used to baton my old leatherman apart, its also chopped through some brick and nails. Anytime i want to do something "stupid" with a knife i grab it :)
For a first attempt im happy with the results. I taped around the stencil and taped off the edge. I had to cut off the very bottom of south america because it ran on to the edge of the blade. And In person you can see that its lighter in a couple areas, but not by much, next time i will darken a little longer. I wasnt sure which to do first so i etched then darkened... It actually came out ok i think.
Its a pretty deep etch. After i was done I washed it with soap and water using a scotch-brite pad and I can still feel it with my finger and my fingernail gets caught in it. The word "wood" is really deep. I went over that part several times with the D/C etcher. next time i try this logo i will go over all of it several times with both the D/C and the A/C. But i maybe spent about 5 or 10 minutes doing that etch at most. It was pretty easy.
A smaller logo would be ideal too, as this one barely fit on the blade. But for now this works.
I wouldnt personally be grinding anything. I wouldnt personally be heat treating anything either. I know a guy to help with grinding the blades before and after heat treat putting a final edge on it. And heat treat would be by Peters. I have a couple being done now in 3V. A large chopper and a mid sized knife. Headed to Peters soon.
I dont have the tools to make a knife, but that doesnt mean i dont like to have knives made for me
Thats bad ass man!! Does it harden the steel any? Im wondering if it will effect the final hardness of the edge?
Is this cost effective? That video make me want to order a hunk of steel just to draw a bunch of stuff on it to send to you to cut out LMAO. a few small knives, a big massive chopper, short sword LMAO who knows but im scared of the price and think i read 20" max, and the normal place i look at for steel sells the steel id want in 4 foot lengths. And i have no way to cut that into 3 pieces
Thats awesome. What kind of habitat/aquarium is he in? are they easy to take care of?
Since i was around 10 or so i liked reptiles a lot. I have had a few pythons, a corn snake, garter snake, ringneck snake, and a milk snake and at one time i had an iguana. I also had a few african dwarf frogs.
I stopped keeping snakes after one of my pythons bit my finger and ripped the skin off my knuckle. Still got a nice scar from that bastard. He wasnt hungry, he had 2 mice a couple days before, he was just MEAN!! But the first year i had him he was awesome, he loved to be out the cage and be held, but after he bit me, all he wanted to do was bite me. Every time i tried to get him after that day he just tried to strike at me while opening the cage.
He went to a guy that wanted a snake just as a decoration LMAO, he built an amazing habitat for him and never had to touch him, he had a feeding door, water door, everything, even a false type bottom to clean the cage. He said he loved how they look but was afraid to touch them. I told him this one turned aggressive but he didnt care because he never planned to hold him. That cage was HUGE, like 6 foot high and 10 feet long, FOR JUST 1 BALL PYTHON!!! It took up an entire wall, but that was his point, he was using it like art in his house But it did indeed look wonderful and it made his living room look pretty sweet.