TOPIC: Hilt weathering

Got the magic liquid today. Seems like it's a mixture of two acids with some other things in it. Will try muriatic acid tomorrow (that's one of the things in the mixture).

Here is what you get from it sitting on the surface for a few minutes.

This is after washing it off with paper towel and rubbing with a bit of baking soda.

And this is what's left after scrubbing it with 400 grit sandpaper.

Basically most of rust/black comes off pretty easy with a little abrasive rub, but any texture will remain well visible.

i really like the look of that good job

Just tried muriatic acid. As you can see from youtube videos it reacts quite vigorously with aluminum. After about a minute in solution surface was dark grey. This as with previous chemicals is fairly easy to remove with sandpaper which reveals any sort of scratches that go into the metal quite well.

I will need to see how it will eat away at aluminum with a longer exposure, hopefully that would create some nice patterns.

But as of now it looks like bleach is great to give aluminum darker kind of yellowish appearance and muriatic acid to attack the surface strongly to possibly eat away at it some giving some texture as well as highlighting any scratches.

Mechanically scratch surface > give it a bath in muriatic acid / small patch applications > sand away surface to reveal bare metal leaving scratches marked > give a bath in chlorine to tarnish newly sanded surfaces > lighter sanding to finish off.....

5-10 minutes of soaking in muriatic acid results in a fairly even texture on the surface. Can soak longer if you dilute the muriatic acid. Full strength from the pool store (34% I think) tends to boil quite strongly and may spill out, diluted will fizzle in a much more controlled manner. This step can release fair amount of heat, i.e. if you do it in a glass container, that may crack, or the aluminum part itself will become hot to the touch. Although should still be ok to handle, aside for obvious contact with the acid itself.

Here is an exemple of just dripping a bit of acid on the surface. The reaction does not last too long as the acid gets used up in 2-3 minutes. This can be used to add local stains/patterns.

Example of a pattern. Printed a logo on a piece of paper, attached it to a blue masking tape, and cut it out. If you have double sided tape that would work better, I just used some tacky glue to attach the cutout afterwards. Then I just poured some acid over the top. It seems that for some reason it ate away aluminum right at the edges of the logo.

Full bar of aluminum that I have been playing with

After all acid treatments I've used 400 grit sandpaper to give it a good scrubbing. So at this point the surface is pretty much finished and won't mark your hands with aluminum oxides etc. Everything feels very smooth, just not shiny. I imagine with higher grit papers that can be achieved to a point.

Full size images can be seen if you click them.

There is a man honing is craft right before our eyes!

If only I had actual saber to try this all on lol. Still a few weeks away from having the first one >

I think practicing on other things is a great idea! By the time you are ready to try it on a real saber, you will know exactly what you want to do, and exactly how to do it.

Not unlike sculpting, there is a masterpiece in there just waiting to be revealed. However, also like sculpting, it is somewhat unforgiving in that; once material is removed, there is no adding it back. So, you are compelled to get it right the first time.

Received some copper sulfate the other day. Works nicer than hydrochloric acid, as far as the actual "damage" to the aluminum. But it also doesn't smell nor bubble as strongly when it works. With hydrochloric acid I couldn't be near it while it was working.

By itself copper sulfate won't work, but with addition on table salt to the mixture it will react with aluminum quite well. Builds up red residue on the surface as it works (I'm guessing copper), the aluminum itself is dark grey, darker it seems than from the hydrochloric acid reaction.

Covering parts of the surface with masking tape or even a marker protects it well enough to do some etching. It is actually used for acid etching in general. Also without salt it could be used for copper electroplating, although do not think it would work with aluminum, but I can try it, just need a piece of copper.