I’m considering a project for my cousin. I’ve never etched on steel and wanted to run my setting by the forum for some feedback and suggestions. I’m in the process of making a jig to keep the knife in place.
Proposed Settings:
Power: Full
Speed: 500
DPI: 300 vary power
Category: ?? (SD, HD, Draft, etc.)
Benchmade 15200 Altitude:
Blade: CPM-S90V super premium stainless
Thickness: 2.286mm
Coating: They told me is was DLC (Diamond Like Coating) Feel like paint though
You can’t engrave steel. You can “mark” it, but you’ll need something like Ceramark. If you search the forum you’ll find tons of resources and examples.
Will the laser blow off the paint and expose the steel similar to powder coated material? The machine did a steel knife on a promo video. They won’t give me the settings though.
I have used LaserBond 100 (comparable to Cermark) on stainless steel. It doesn’t appear that it would chip off, but then the things I make don’t come under that intensity of contact, so I can make no claims about that. If you’re going to go this route, you would need to do some testing. The settings that come with LB are not directly correlated to the Glowforge. I will be happy to share my settings with you if you decide to try it out.
I suspect that the DLC is some type of ceramic or nitride and may prevent good adhesion from the marking material. If you can get to bare steel, you may be able to mark it with one of the oxidizers that have been used before, water, vinegar, etc. but without knowing exactly what the coating is it will be very hard to determine how exactly to mark it permanently.
Maybe, maybe not. You can search the forum on the name of the material. You may want to search other laser forums as well. Someone has probably tried it (although not necessarily on a glowforge). Whether or not the documented it and whether or not you can find it in the vastness of the Internet is the big question.
Would you please share your settings? I have gone through almost half my can of Laserbond 100 with trial and error and have had no luck. And you’re right, the settings they give you on their website doesn’t correlate with the glow forge.
I’m trying to use it on Aluminum, Brass, and Copper.
Thanks in advance!
Hi there! I have a friend asking for me to engrave on a knife for her husband but it has a black coating on the steel. did you put any compound on this or anything? or did you just use these settings and that’s it? thanks in advance. I just don’t want to mess up her knife
Hi, your knifes look great. I’ve trying to engrave on a couple knifes that are the dark color like yours and I just can’t get the engraving to show up very well. I even tried three passes with the settings that you used. Any ideas?
Sorry to hear that!
The knives I was working with had a black coating over top of the shiny steel. The settings I posted removed the coating that was put on the knives.
I’ve seen knives that are dark and not coated. Just pure steel with a dark color. Is that case with your knives by chance?
Thank you for the replay.
Yes. I don’t think they have a coating on them. Although, the sharpened edge is silver. That’s why I was hoping that would show through. I see that the name KERSHAW is actually engraved, but I can’t fit them on my rotary engraver. I think I’m stuck.
