Those look great! Being from New Orleans, I love the fleur de lis. This is one reason I have not posted in a while. I have some etching ideas that I want to combine with the the letter stamps. I just have not gotten the ferric chloride yet. Great work!
This is outstanding!!! Question for y'all.... Do you solder the brass and copper? If so how do you keep the solder from going everywhere? I frequently end up with silver all over the copper etc tyia mntnbkr
I have started to use solder- it. It is solder and flux mixed together in a syringe. It makes it a little easier to control, but a little harder to make sure you have enough there to make a solid connection. It took me a few tries to get the amount to bond without too much spill over right. I like using it because I do not solder very often and it you can get it to work with a simple jet style lighter.
Finally got around to making another tag. After seeing some of the tags that have been posted here, I wanted to try something different. So, I combined the letter stamps with ferric chloride etching. The back story on this tag is that I am a high school, chemistry, biology AP, and environmental science teacher. Hence, the biohazard tag! Have seen this symbol more times than I can count. Here is the front. Here is the back.
I just picked up some copper rounds to mess around with. What do you guys use most often for etching?
Ferric chloride also know as pcb etching solution. You can get it from radio shack or any place that sells computer board etching solution. My mother-in-law is an artist, specifically a print maker and gave me a large bottle of iron perchloride crystals that she got from an art supply store. It is the same as ferric chloride solution, you just have to mix it yourself. Just be careful and mix slowly. The reaction generates a lot of heat and can boil over if you try to dissolve too much at one time.
Have not done it with students yet, but this year they are going to make a copper periodic table. Each student will get a copper square to draw whatever they want to represent their element and then we are going to etch the copper and construct the squares into the periodic table. This won't happen for a while, we have to get to that chapter first. But, once it is done, I will post some pictures of their work.
Seeing all these cool tags on here, I decided to try my own hand at it. I want to make some personalized retirement gifts for a few buddies of mine who are about to retire. This was my first attempt. A little too square, but it's close to what I want. On the back I am going to have inscribed Matthew 5:9 Once I get the patina right, I might try my hand at etching the Master Chief anchor on the next ones.
Not really a true tag but they are all copper. 2 car rear view mirror crosses that I made today. And yes I've got time on my hands and try to keep busy.
I really enjoyed following this thread and after all that lurking I decided to give it a go... I tried to be a little different and this is what I ended up with... Version One: I wasn't really happy how this one turned out so I ended up removing the case heads and drilling holes for the eyes and nose area. It is now used to keep sets of keys separated in each eye socket. I need to get a better picture to show off in the morning.... EDIT: Here is "Version One" in its current usage, which turned out pretty handy: Later that day I came up with a more experimental Version Two: I tried my best to engrave the design into the skull but I could not get it to cut deep enough to be as visible as I wanted, so I filled in the scratched design with ink. After somewhat unsuccessfully attempting to modify the color of the copper I have found that a side effect of the heat was making the ink bulletproof. It hasn't scraped off in the least after being tossed around on my keychain for a few days. I am trying to figure out how to achieve a more patina'd look for my next copper/brass tags. 8/30/13--Edited to add photo.
Thank you! I am very interested in copper etching after seeing some wonderful examples in this thread, and was just searching around for ideas. How might a beginner etch copper safely and effectively (and inexpensively)?
